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Minimalism is a deliberate lack of embellishment

• Minimalism: Deliberate lack of decoration or adornment in style or design.  Oxford Dictionary  
• Minimalism: A style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity. Merriam Webster
• Simplicity,  Frugality,  Materialism,  Consumerism

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Minimalism believes that less is more

• Less is more. Mies van der Rohe
• Have less. Do less. Be more. Aboodi Shaby
• Don’t use a lot where a little will do. Proverb
• With few there is attainment. With much there is confusion. Lao Tzu

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Minimalism is promoting what matters and removing what doesn’t

• Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. Joshua Becker
• A minimalist is simply one who questions the necessity of things, and who tries to live with what’s necessary, rather than with consumerism. Leo Babauta
• I have my own definition of minimalism, which is that which is created with a minimum of means. La Monte Young
• Eliminate what is not important

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Minimalism is about eliminating what is unnecessary in your life

• Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. Edwin Way Teale
• The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. Lin Yutang
• It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. Henry Ward Beecher
• We make progress by eliminating things, by removing the superfluous. Steve Jobs
• One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity. Bruce Lee
• A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso or simplicity. In the kanso concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission.
• To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. Lao- Tzu
• The greatest step toward a life of simplicity is to learn to let go. Steve Maraboli
• Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Simplicity is marked by the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it. Joshua Becker
• Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest. Leo Babauta
• One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in. Francis Jourdain

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Embrace frugality

• Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. Elise Boulding
• How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.  Nikos Kazantzakis
• It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind. Lucretius
• Frugality

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Embrace simplicity

• Simplicity invites us to slow down, consume less, but enjoy more. Joshua Becker
• Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind. Albert Einstein
• Big house, big car, big breasts, big life, big this and big that; what is so big about living big? Live on KISS principle not BIG principle. Santosh Kalwar
• A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think. Eleanor Roosevelt
• But I deal with this by meditating and by understanding I’ve been put on the planet to serve humanity. I have to remind myself to live simply and not overindulge, which is a constant battle in a material world. Sandra Cisneros
• Make things as simple as possible but no simpler. Albert Einstein
• Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life. Katharine Fullerton Gerould
• Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit experience and the last effort of genius. George Sand
• Live simply so that others may simply live. Elizabeth Ann Seton
• Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucious
• … in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify, simplify! … Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose Henry David Thoreau
• Simplicity

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Find the right balance between too much and too little

• The intention of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less. It’s a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence. Duane Elgin
• Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much. Sir Joshua Reynolds
• Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
• Balance,  Harmony

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Learn to appreciate simple things and simple pleasures

• Minimalism is not defined by what is not there but by the rightness of what is and the richness with which this is experienced.  John Pawson

• The art of contentment is the recognition that the most satisfying and the most dependably refreshing experiences of life lie not in great things but in little. Edgar A. Collard
• The simplest things are often the truest. Richard Bach 
• Most people don’t discover what’s most important in life until they are too old to do anything about it. They spend many of their best years pursuing things that matter little in the end. While society invites us to fill our lives with material objects, the best part of us knows that the more basic pleasures are the ones that enrich and sustain us. Robin Sharma
• To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter … to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring— these are some of the rewards of the simple life.  John Burroughs
• I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. Laura Ingalls Wilder
• I have learned that the greatest things in life ‘are not’ things at all. W. Fortney
• Appreciation,  Savouring

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Simplify your life to make space for what is important

• Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty – it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying. Leo Babauta
• Simplifying is not necessarily about getting rid of everything we’ve worked so hard for… It’s about deciding what’s important to us, and gracefully letting go of the things that aren’t. Elaine St. James
• Simplicity involves unburdening your life and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual. Linda Breen Pierce
• Such a simplified lifestyle can be truly wonderful – you’ll finally have time for the things you really love, for relaxation, for outdoor activities, for exercise, for reading or finding peace and quiet, for the loved ones in your life, for the things you’re most passionate about. This is what it means to thrive – to live a life full of the things you want in them, and not more. To live a better quality of life without having to spend and buy and consume. Leo Babauta

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Unclutter your life

• Out of clutter find simplicity. Albert Einstein
• Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter. D.H. Mondfleur
• Clutter is a form of visual distraction, and everything in our vision pulls at our attention. The less clutter, the less visual stress we have. A simple home is calming. Leo Babauta
• As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul. Wayne Dyer
• When in doubt: breathe, drink water, clear clutter.   Karen Kramer
• Clutter-clearing is modern-day alchemy. Denise Linn
• Clutter is stuck energy. The word “clutter” derives from the Middle English word “clotter,” which means to coagulate – and that’s about as stuck as you can get. Karen Kingston
• Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. William Morris
• Clutter is a physical manifestation of fear that cripples our ability to grow. G. Chissell
• If you look at your entire house as one unit of junk, you’ll never do anything because the job is too overwhelming. Take it one drawer at a time.  Janet Luhrs
• Anyone who has ever cleaned out a closet knows how liberating it is. You feel lighter, your mind feels clearer.  Cecile Andrews
• The next time you decide to unclutter your life and clean up your space, start with the things that are truly useless: Like regrets, shame, and anger. Sandra Kring
• As the house is cleaned, so the mind can be cleaned. As you enjoy a clean house, you will enjoy a clean and uncluttered mind. Remez Sasson
• Get rid of one thing a day for 30 days. We have so much clutter surrounding us at any given moment and we’ve become so accustomed to it that we no longer notice how it affects us.  If you start cleaning up some of this external clutter, a lot of internal clutter will disappear as well.  Choose one needless item each and every day and get rid of it.  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Clean out a different drawer in your house every week. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• Clutter,  Simple living

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Do less so you can focus on what is important

• My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. Francine Jay
• Find what matters most to you and eliminate as much of the rest as possible. Leo Babauta
• Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’ Marcus Aurelius
• Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials. Lin Yutang
• It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential. Bruce Lee
• Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do. John Carmack
• Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list. Steve Pavlina
• What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do. Aristotle
• It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. Henry Ward Beecher
• When things aren’t adding up in your life, start subtracting.
• Sometimes our stop-doing list needs to be bigger than our to-do list. Patti Digh
• The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone. Stella, Lady Reading
• It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less. Nathan W. Morris
• Cut back to a few important tasks and your work will be transformed. Do only a few things in life and those things will breathe and take on an importance they never had before. Leo Babauta
• It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
• Busyness

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A simple, uncluttered life leads to more peace and less stress

• You can do less and live more. You don’t need more stuff. Release your cravings for materialism. It will lead to less debt, less work and less stress. Henri Junttila
• The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well- being that places harmony in one’s life. Peace Pilgrim
• What a unique treasure are the things we have learned to live without, for no thief can take them from us. Robert Brault
• If we reduce our needs and learn to be content with little, we need to work little to survive. Leo Babauta
• Inner peace,  Stress

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A simple, uncluttered life leads to greater happiness

• Simplicity is the essence of happiness. Cedric Bledsoe
• Notice that out of control material aspirations quickly shrink your happiness. Gratitude for what we have plus keeping our material aspirations in check? That’s a good way to boost your happiness. Brian Johnson
• We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without. Henry David Thoreau
• If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. The Dalai Lama
• Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature. Thomas a Kempis
• If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this is the best season of your life. Wu-Men
• The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. Socrates
• Very little is needed for a happy life. Marcus Aurelius
• Barn’s burned down – now I can see the rising moon. Zen Master Masahide
• Happiness

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A simple, uncluttered life creates greater space and freedom

• Let me not be tied down to property or praise and I shall be free. Free from the nagging ache of envy. Free from the hurts of resentment. Free to love all and forgive all. Free to do and say what is right, regardless of the unpopularity. Free to wander everywhere as inspiration guides me. Saint Francis of Assisi
• I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty. George Santayana
• The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. Mother Teresa
• A simplified life is light, easy, and free. It is a life that has thoughtfully and intentionally removed many of the things that weigh us down. Joshua Becker
• It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly. Bertrand Russell
• Once you become detached from things, they don’t own you any longer. Wayne Dyer
• Everything you lose gives you a little more space for something new. Ashleigh Brilliant
• Freedom

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Society tries to convince us that happiness lies in having things

• The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. Elise Boulding
• Materialism,  Consumerism

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We strive to attain things we don’t need

• We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. Richard Foster
• Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. Tyler Durden, Fight Club (via author Chuck Phalanuick)
• Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. Will Rogers

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Realise lasting happiness doesn’t come from possessions

• One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won’t solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside. Tenzin Palmo
• The desire to have, to acquire and possess, is in principle insatiable, and rarely generates the sense of fulfillment and happiness it promises. Tom Morris
• Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it. François de La Rochefoucald
• The accumulation of material possessions, which I refer to by the technical term of “stuff,” doesn’t feed the soul. It doesn’t matter how much stuff you accumulate; it won’t satisfy your spiritual nature. Stuff is like junk food to the soul, and just as junk food won’t nurture your body, neither will accumulating more stuff. Brad Swift
• Your soul is not from the world of form; this explains why the world of form cannot fully satisfy your soul. Sampo Kaasila
• Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. Hosea Ballou
• Happiness,  Live rich, don’t die rich

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Realise that the more things you own, the more they own you

• Don’t let your possessions possess you. Jackson Brown Jr.
• Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest. Peace Pilgrim
• Everything we possess that is not necessary for life or happiness becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes that we do not add to it. Robert Brault
• A great fortune is a great slavery. Seneca
• Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions. Frank Lloyd Wright
• The more things you own, the more they own you.
• It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. Bertrand Russell
• The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. Mother Teresa
• The things you used to own, now they own you. Chuck Palahniuk
• Any half-awake materialist well knows – that which you hold holds you. Tom Robbins
• We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties. Anna C. Brackett
• Everything we possess that is not necessary for life or happiness becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes that we do not add to it. Robert Brault
• I’ve found that the less stuff I own, the less my stuff owns me. Nathan W. Morris

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Let go of your attachment to possessions

• To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance. Buddha
• Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them. Paulo Coelho
• Once you become detached from things, they don’t own you any longer. Wayne Dyer
• Non-attachment

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Here are some interesting rules of thumb for what to keep and what to let go

• Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. William Morris
• If you have to dust it, you’d better love it.
• Never love anything that can’t love you back.
• Buy something new, let something go. Richard Carlson
• Bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it’s clutter, and it needs to go. Charisse Ward
• Everything you own should have value, either because it’s functional or beautiful or you just love it. Andrew Mellen
• Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

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Invest in your consciousness rather than possessions

• Material objects are just tools to help you enjoy your life. You do not carry them with you when you die. So, don’t invest yourself in them. Rather, invest yourself in the development of your consciousness. Celestine Chua
• Consciousness

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Scale down your needs and desires

• If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires. Epicurus
• We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. Donald Horban
• I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them. John Stuart Mill
• What’s important is being content with life, not stuff, and thereby reducing your needs. Leo Babauta
• We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without. Immanuel Kant
• The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires. Seneca
• Abundance consists not so much in material possessions, but in an uncovetous spirit. John Seldon
• There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little. Jackie French Koller
• I have the greatest of all riches: that of not desiring them. Eleonora Duse
• It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. Seneca
• My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants. J. Brotherton
• Desire,  Human needs,  Contentment

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Realise you need far less than you think

• We need much less than we think we need. Maya Angelou
• You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. Vernon Howard
• People exaggerate the value of things they haven’t got. George Bernard Shaw
• You need much less than you think you need to be happy, and you usually have a lot more than you think you have. Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Very little is needed for a happy life. Marcus Aurelius
• Need does not exist. I need nothing to be happy. Happiness is a state of mind. Neale Donald Walsch

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Be grateful and happy with what you have rather than constantly wanting more

• You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. Charles Spurgeon
• Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Lao Tzu
• Contentment is a state of grace, a state of peace and happiness, appreciation and enjoyment for what is, right now. Desires, in contrast, can never be satisfied. Once we get what we crave, we soon find it less satisfying than we expected, so we strive for something else. The only escape from this perpetual wheel of want is to discover the contentment and perfection we already have. Gillian Stokes
• Give up on the idea that more is better. The desire to have more and more and more is insatiable. As long as you think more is better, you’ll never be satisfied. As soon as we get something, or achieve something, most of us simply go onto the next thing. Immediately. You can learn to be happy with what you have by becoming more present moment oriented, by not focusing so much on what you want. You can spend your life time wanting more, always chasing happiness – or you can simply decide to consciously want less. The latter strategy is infinitely easier and more fulfilling. Richard Carlson
• He who doesn’t find a little enough will find nothing enough. Epicurus
• Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. Epicurus

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• I can’t get enough minimalism.
• A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered drawer.
• Junk is something you throw away just before you need it.
• If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign? Albert Einstein
• Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire. Wendell Berry
• All I want is more and more and more. Is that asking too much?  Ashleigh Brilliant
• Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.  Will Rogers

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