Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird—that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace—making the complicated simple, awesomely simple—that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus (1922–79) American Jazz Bassist, Composer
If you walk, just walk. If you sit, just sit. But whatever you do, don’t wobble.
—Unknown
The man of fixed ingrained principles who has mapped out a straight course, and has the courage and self-control to adhere to it, does not find life complex. Complexities are all of our own making.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them.
—Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Eat when you’re hungry. Drink when you’re thirsty. Sleep when you’re tired.
—Buddhist Proverb
We cannot solve life’s problems except by solving them.
—M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American Psychiatrist, Author
I take a simple view of living. It is, keep your eyes open and get on with it.
—Laurence Olivier (1907–89) English Actor, Producer, Director
To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
When you are at sea, keep clear of the land.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
If we live, we live; if we die, we die; if we suffer, we suffer; if we are terrified, we are terrified. There is no problem about it.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
At times almost all of us envy the animals. They suffer and die, but do not seem to make a “problem” of it.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Love, and do what you like.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
They are the guiding oracles which man has found out for himself in that great business of ours, of learning how to be, to do, to do without, and to depart.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
The course of every intellectual, if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough, ends in the obvious, from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
—Cary Grant (1904–86) British-American Film Actor
Keep breathing.
—Sophie Tucker (1884–1966) Russian-born American Singer, Entertainer
There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.
—E. F. Schumacher (1911–77) German Mathematician, Economist
Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
—Unknown
I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
—Unknown
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