Simplicity quotes

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter XIV; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529. After arguing that commerce helped England and America undermine feudal power, Wollstonecraft warns that “the tyranny of wealth is still more galling and debasing than that of rank.” This remains historical political-economic reflection within the travel letters rather than present-day financial or legal guidance.

The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner is arguing that deep feeling often appears plainly.

Dhammapada 204, Max Müller translation; the final reference to Nirvana makes the verse explicitly Buddhist rather than a purely secular maxim.

Enchiridion, chapter 15; the following sentences explain waiting until things come round to you.

Walden, “Economy”; wording lightly normalized from the surrounding sentence.

Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence completes Smiles’s practical paragraph on forming habits of economy: repeated thrift becomes easier and eventually compensates the self-denial it initially requires.

Proverbs 22:4 in the King James Version.

The Simple Life, Chapter V, “Simple Duty,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the phrase condenses his argument about nearby obligations.

Tao Teh King, chapter 46, James Legge translation; the statement follows warnings about ambition, discontent, and the wish to keep getting.

Political Ideals, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #4776. Russell distinguishes possessive impulses from creative or constructive impulses and then says that the best life gives the largest role to the latter. This remains a 1917 political-philosophy ideal about individual life and institutions, not a current empirical measure of wellbeing or creativity.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke, second edition (1790); this sentence follows Wollstonecraft’s refusal to disguise her sentiments behind courtly politeness.

“The Old Stoic,” in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; Project Gutenberg #1019. The poem uses a deliberately severe persona and should not be treated as a complete ethical system.

The Republic, Book III, Jowett translation; the passage connects musical and literary form with simplicity of character.

“Footprints on the Seashore,” represented in Twice-Told Tales, Project Gutenberg #13707. The narrator immediately says that forest and ocean summon him away from human haunts; “health and vigor” is literary self-description, not medical advice.

Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, February 7, 1788; excerpt from a longer comparison with holding a splendid public post.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2.

The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner recommends silence after criticizing needless verbal noise.

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

The Prophet, “On Giving.”

The Simple Life, Chapter II, Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner closes the section by describing simplicity as something a person can recover.

Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. Marden is making a practical-moral argument, not a clinical claim.

My First Summer in the Sierra, June 13 journal entry.

The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II, Valley of Humiliation, represented by Project Gutenberg #39452, the Jesse Lyman Hurlbut-edited Every Child Can Read edition that includes the Part II episode. Mr. Great-heart and the pilgrims see a shepherd boy feeding his father's sheep and hear him sing ‘He that is down needs fear no fall...’; the song is followed by Great-heart's praise of the boy's heart's-ease. The previous #131 fallback does not contain this represented Part II passage, so the evidence layer moves to #39452. The stanza remains embedded Christian-allegorical character song rather than Bunyan autobiography or secular clinical advice about humility.

Thrift, Preface; original Preface dated London, November 1875, verified in Project Gutenberg #14418’s represented John Murray Fiftieth Thousand witness (London, 1892). Smiles links personal independence with forethought, prudence, frugality and self-denial while explaining the practical purpose of the book; the sentence is historical moral-economic counsel, not a guarantee that saving practices alone establish modern financial independence.

Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.

The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855. The meal-tub is Franklin’s domestic metaphor for continual consumption without replacement.

A concise clause from Enchiridion 8, where Epictetus contrasts demanding preferred outcomes with accepting what occurs.

The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the line follows Wagner’s appeal for the “speech of honor.”

The Human Machine, concluding emphasis on present practice over distant aspiration. The idiom “needs a lot of beating” means the ambition is difficult to surpass, not that it requires violence.

Little Men; the closing harvest imagery turns the children gathered at home into the household’s most important yield and source of gratitude.

Unto This Last, fourth essay, first published in Cornhill Magazine in 1860 and collected in book form in 1862; Project Gutenberg #36541. This is Ruskin’s normative political-economy argument, not a modern empirical wealth metric.

Character Building, “Some Great Little Things,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington places this instruction among small daily habits of order, quiet, cleanliness, reading and reflection that he treats as important parts of character formation.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The sentence belongs to a philosophical comparison of personality, possessions and reputation, not financial advice.

Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 254; retained legacy short extract from the fuller Satan sentence beginning ‘The mind is its own place’ and continuing into line 255. It is the same underlying passage as the longer catalog record, not a separate fifth passage.

Little Women, Chapter 1, “Playing Pilgrims,” Project Gutenberg #514. Beth March answers her sisters’ complaints about poverty with “We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” naming family relationships as what remains available to them. This is Beth’s fictional dialogue inside the opening domestic scene.

Matthew 6:28, King James Version; Jesus points listeners to the lilies while discussing anxiety about clothing and material provision.

Of Peace of Mind, section X, Aubrey Stewart translation (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and Wikisource. Seneca argues that voluntarily setting limits to success can interrupt the repeated alternation of hope and fear and prevent ambition from expanding without bounds.

The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 299; Thomas Common translation in the represented 1910 English edition.

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles contrasts inherited material wealth with the more durable inheritance of useful human skill and labour transmitted across generations by teaching and example.

Silas Marner; Eliot contrasts the former hoard with Eppie, whose needs and future redirect Silas’s earnings toward hope, relationship, and practical care.

The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855. The maxim introduces Franklin’s distinction between apparent cheapness and genuine value.

The Simple Life, Chapter V, “Simple Duty,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner contrasts ordinary duty with inflated moral ambition.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2.

The Art of Money Getting, opening economy section; Project Gutenberg #8581. Barnum contrasts rational saving with irrational spending in his nineteenth-century personal-finance rhetoric.

Enchiridion, section 8; Epictetus applies Stoic acceptance to events outside personal control.

The Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter II; Project Gutenberg #3300. “Neat rent” is Smith’s historical term for net rent after management, repair, and other necessary charges.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 7, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

The Gospel of Wealth, first essay; 1889 North American Review text. The excerpt begins Carnegie’s longer description of what he believes wealthy people owe to dependents and community.

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, “Dangers to Avoid.” Bennett is warning against becoming enslaved to an over-ambitious personal programme; “attempt less” is adjustment advice, not a general rejection of ambition.

Wake-Robin; Burroughs uses the line while describing the alertness and discovery available to an attentive observer outdoors.