Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff.

I have finally decided to write my book on the spiritual life. I mean to put down as simply as possible the sort of ascetical or mystical teaching that I have been living and preaching so long. I call it ‚Le Milieu Divin,‘ but I am being careful to include nothing esoteric and the minimum of explicit philosophy.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

We should all grow our own food and do our own waste processing, we really should.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

In the past there were people who were not rich but contented with their living style, laughing and happy all day. But when the new rich people appear, people look at them and ask, ‚why don’t I have a life like that too, a beautiful house, car and garden,‘ and they abandon their values.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

Fortunately for India, it has got a growing economy. If it is doing the right things with taxation and focusing on the right areas for human development, it is going to have no problem, over a period of time, taking care of its own needs.

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.

There are things around, and I know where they can be got quite easily, but I quite like waking up to the sunshine.

Material things are delightful, but they’re not important.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.

No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

The only meat I eat is from animals I’ve killed myself.

A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.

I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It’s not super-poetic, it’s just from the heart.

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man’s happiness really lies in contentment.

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.

Most people are happy being average. Most are happy being faceless in a sea of faces.

Stand-up is hard. Or to keep it at a certain level is hard: I have no writers but me.

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.

I was raised to be independent.

Grow in the root of all grace, which is faith. Believe God’s promises more firmly than ever. Allow your faith to increase in its fullness, firmness, and simplicity.

I’m just a simple country girl.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

You just have to have a simple faith.

There are so many emotions that you’re feeling, you can get stifled by them if you’re feeling them all at once. What I try to do is take one moment – one simple, simple feeling – and expand it into three-and-a-half minutes.

He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.

I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make – and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn’t quite work.

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

Work alone is noble.

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.

I think business has to be stupider. I want to do really straightforward, stupid business – just talk to me like a 4-year-old. And I refuse to negotiate. I do not negotiate. I can collaborate. But I’m an artist, so as soon as you negotiate, you’re being compromised.