10 Quotes That Will Motivate You To Embrace Simplicity

Most of us know what it's like to lose energy when we own too many things. Whether we realize it or not, it leaves us feeling less generous, less sure of ourselves, less clear about our purpose, and less capable to step out of ourselves to be Christ to someone else. Whatever choice we face in the moment, extra weight from stuff we carry makes it difficult for us to react in alignment with our best self.

It's a truth that owning too much stuff—the kind of stuff that builds up and gets in our way, filling our rooms and confusing our brains—can poison our freedom bit by bit.

We need so much less than we know. And it feels good to find that out.

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Doing as little as giving away one shirt a week has a positive impact on the way we feel inside. There's more room for Christ, more room for family, more room for kindness and clarity and understanding the need of the moment. There's more room to see the shirts we do like.

While simplicity is a spiritual reality as well as a practical one, it can be easiest to start with what we can see with our physical eyes and go on from there. Offer up each thing you give away, each effort you make to better understand your relationship with your possessions, for the intention of simplicity in your own soul.

Any time is a good time to make a project out of simplicity, don't you think?

Here are some quotes to help us:

1. "Every increased possession loads us with new weariness."
—John Ruskin
 

2. "The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are."
—St. Teresa of Calcutta
 

3. "I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; Probe the earth to see where your main roots run."
—Henry David Thoreau
 

4. "Order your soul. Reduce your wants."
—Saint Augustine
 

5. "Living simply makes loving simple."
—Bell Hooks
 

6. "Don’t forget it: He has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself."
—St. Josemaría Escrivá
 

7. "A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—but how efficiently we can put first things first."
—Victoria Moran
 

8. "Love is freedom."
—St. Teresa of Calcutta
 

9. "Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Lower the bar. Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement."
—Gretchen Rubin
 

10. "Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society."
—Henry David Thoreau

In the end, St. Teresa of Avila says it best: “Thank God for the things I do not own.” Or, as Wendell Berry said: “Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.”