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Wading through life can sometimes feel like a Herculean effort. Nobody knows the secret to success, especially when it concerns essential things like family, money, work, and living instead of merely existing.

Everyone is different, so a one-size-fits-all manual can never be the solution. Words – with their imaginative, persuasive power – can be just what you need sometimes. So we are hoping that you will find new inspiration with these simple life quotes – just like we did!

Our Selection of the Best Simple Life Quotes

So, here are some inspiring simple life quotes to clear self-doubt and push yourself just a little forward in all the major aspects of life.

Table of Contents

Top 10 Quotes

To start with, let’s review our 10 favorite quotes about family, friends, work, fun and leading a simple life:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
“The first step in crafting the life you want is getting rid of everything you don’t” – Joshua Becker
“Discard everything that does not spark joy. When you surround yourself with possessions that spark joy, you’ll create a home and a life you love.” – Marie Kondo
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles.” – John Lennon
“Good social relationships are the most consistent predictor of a happy life” – Thomas Oppong, Stanford Medicine
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future. It is something you DESIGN for the present.” – Jim Rohn
“Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life.” – Lisa Weed
“It is the bonds we make with the ones closest to us, and the love we share with our family that we truly need in our last moments. The rest is left behind, unwanted for our legacy.”
“Spending money on others—prosocial spending—leads to greater happiness than spending money on oneself.” –Michael Norton (Source)
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

Help us get better! Please rate this top 10:

Are you ready for more inspiring quotes? Let’s take a look now at the best simple life quotes by category, starting with leading a simple life.

Favorite Quotes About Leading a Simple Life

Our lives feel busy and cluttered, and we often just accept this as normal. We’re on overload and we can’t see a way out. Well, it doesn’t have to be this way! Stop waiting for the perfect moment. Unclutter your home, schedule and life today. Here are some powerful quotes that will help you lead a simple life.

“You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse…. I’ve been blessed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in my life. I can’t take it with me, and neither can you. It’s not how much you have but what you do with what you have.”
– Denzel Washington

About clutter and having too many things:

Whether it’s your inbox, your wardrobe, your email or your to-do lists, decluttering can make you more efficient and productive. It can also make you feel better by giving you more room. We hope that this amazing quote selection will help you get rid of the stuff that’s cluttering your life.

“When we focus more on fitting it all in instead of making time for what counts, we lose sight of how to create a meaningful life.” Courtney Carver, Soulful Simplicity: How Living with Less Can Lead to So Much More
“Your home is living space, not storage space.” – Francine Jay (Author of “The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify”)
“Ask anyone what makes them truly happy, and they won’t say their stuff.” – Peter Walsh
“The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” – Socrates
“The best things in life aren’t things.” – Art Buchwald
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” – Hans Hofmann
“Beware of destination addiction – a preoccupation with the idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job and with the next partner. Until you give up that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.” – Robert Holden
“Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.”
“Step 1: stop being a crap collector. There is no point in getting rid of stuff if you are just going to replace it with more stuff. You have to start by stopping the madness. (…) Like any addict, you must admit you have a problem.” – Gary Collins (Author of “The Simple Life“).
“Hi, my name is Gary, and I’m a recovered Clutteraholic. Now it’s your turn. And believe me, you are going to feel relieved the moment you admit this.” – Gary Collins.

Reducing clutter to focus on what matters:

“Clutter and mess makes people unhappy. Simplicity help people focus on things that matter.” – anonymous
“Once you learn to detach happiness from acquiring and owning things you can focus on what truly makes you happy—and actually achieve that.” – Peter Walsh
“Have the courage to build your life around what is most important to you.” – Joshua Becker
“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” – Marie Kondo
“Minimalism isn’t about removing things you love. It’s about removing the things that distract you from the things you love.” – Joshua Becker
“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” – Joshua Becker
“It’s not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.” – Charles Spurgeon

Discarding clutter:

“Discard everything that does not spark joy. When you surround yourself with possessions that spark joy, you’ll create a home and a life you love.” – Marie Kondo
“Start by discarding, all at once, intensely and completely. (…) Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding. (…) You can think about where to put things only when you are finished getting rid of everything you don’t need.” – Marie Kondo
“The key to success in tidying is to finish discarding first. You can only plan where to store your things and what to store them in once you’ve decided what to keep and what to discard” – Penguin.co.uk.

“Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all.”
~ Nathan W. Morris

About living a simple life:

“I’m just delighted to be living, to be able to have a simple conversation, to feel a ray of sunlight on my skin and listen to the breeze move through the leaves of a tree.” – Ryuichi Sakamoto
“My new deliberate and slower pace has created a higher quality in my experiences.” – Lisa J. Shultz, Lighter Living: Declutter. Organize. Simplify.
“I don’t say no because I am so busy. I say no because I don’t want to be so busy.” – Courtney Carver
“I went from 1,700 to 475 square feet, almost a 75 percent reduction in living space! (…) My $3,500 in monthly living expenses shrunk to $1,100 per month. I can’t explain the cleansing effect this had on my psyche.” – Gary Collins in “The Simple Life“.
“Clutter smothers. Simplicity breathes.” – Terry Guillemets
“A simple life is good with me. I don’t need a whole lot. For me, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts, barefoot on a beach, and I’m happy” – anonymous
“Living simple is taking care of yourself. Knowing what makes you happy. Focusing on what makes you happy. At the end of the day, what makes you happy is really, really not that complicated. A fat mortgage or a cluttered garage won’t make you happy. It probably all comes down to health, family, friends, experiences, and a positive environment. Knowing this makes it really easy to discard the extra clutter in your life.”
“We’re accumulating stuff. We want bigger houses and more money. People who live a simple life enjoy themselves with gratitude, love, friends, and experiences. We drive gas-guzzling SUVs, fill up our garages with storage bins that seem to scream ‘Buy the next Costco bargain‘.” – anonymous

About friends and experiences that make you happy:

“People are notoriously bad at predicting what will make us happy.” – Daniel Gilbert (we think the next purchases will make us happy, but they will not)
“There is only one happiness in life. To love and to be loved.” – George Sand
“Make a list of what truly matters and what makes you happy.”
“Make time for the people and experiences that matter to you.”
“There is always room in your heart for one more friend.”
“Enjoy making new friends TODAY.” – Suzanne Douglas

Favorite Quotes About Life & Happiness

Life can be complicated: this study identified 9 main drivers of happiness! That’s a lot to think about. But let’s keep things easy and look at simple life quotes that can inspire you to find purpose and happiness in your own life:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” – Tom Bodett
“Success in life is a feeling and doesn’t always equate to financial wealth. Success could stem from inspiring people, raising kind children, doing what you love, and leaving behind a legacy.”
“Be happy. Not because everything is good, but because you can see the good side of everything.”
“Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” – Harvard Health Publishing
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” – Anne Frank
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future. It is something you DESIGN for the present.” – Jim Rohn
“Happiness is not a goal… it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Happiness is not something readymade. it comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
“There is no happiness without action.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? – Vincent Van Gogh
“No dream is too big. The only thing you’ve got to do is set small achievable goals to get there.”
“Studying the lives of those who lived life to the maximum will always yield a legacy of kindness, compassion, and love instead of wealth, skyscrapers, and fast cars.”
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or the life of another.” –Helen Keller
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers
“Live a life that leaves behind a legacy of living that supersedes your time on Earth. For he who lives inspires others to live.”
“Every new day is another chance to change and improve your life.”
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our insecurities of today; Let us move ahead with influential and dynamic faith. –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Favorite Quotes about Friendships

Everyone needs a best friend – a person who encourages, listens, cheers and soothes. A true friend gives you kindness and encouragement, is someone you can count on to be there for you, shares your tears and laughter, and never lets you down. You can be 100% yourself around them with no judgement, and they’ll love and support you through thick and thin. These friendship quotes will make you recall some really wonderful times you’ve shared with your friends.

“Good social relationships are the most consistent predictor of a happy life” – Thomas Oppong, Stanford Medicine
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” — Muhammad Ali
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles.” – John Lennon
“It’s not what we have in life, but who we have in our life that matters.” — Unknown
“A friend is one of the best things you can be and the greatest things you can have.” — Sarah Valdez
“Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.” – Jean De La Fontaine
“There is nothing better than a friend. Unless it is a friend with chocolate.” – Linda Grayson
“Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power.” – Jane Fonda
“In order to make friends, you must first be friendly.” – Dale Carnegie
“Love people, use things. The opposite never works.”~ The Minimalists

Favorite Quotes about Family

According to Pew Research (Source), “76% of adults say that their family is the single most important element of their lives”. You will find below simple life quotes about family that can inspire you to become a better family person and understand how family can help you lead a successful life:

Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life. – Lisa Weed
It is the bonds we make with the ones closest to us, and the love we share with our family that we truly need in our last moments. The rest is left behind, unwanted for our legacy.
My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn’t a social construct but an instinct. – Jodi Picoult
Man may chase success, money, a fast life, but solace is truly found in coming back home to the embrace of the mother and the support of the father.
Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one. – Unknown
Family isn’t only ties made with blood relations. A chosen family can be as accommodating, loving, and nurturing- if not more- than a blood family.
Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter. –Brad Henry
To have a family means to be reprimanded softly, loved unconditionally, and grow unrestrainedly.
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. –Jane Howard
A family can be at the same time a rambunctious, messy unit of petty fights and tears, and also a lifeboat with oars of love to seek solace in when the world gets too dark.
Families are the tie that reminds us of yesterday, provide strength and support today, and give us hope for tomorrow. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, or well-managed, can provide what our families provide. –Bill Owens
The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you. –Louis Zamperini
In the cruel, superficial thunderstorm of life, your family provides the metaphorical umbrella.
I feel like I finally understand how family love is. Tangled, wounded, and wonderful. Imperfect. A forever love. – Hannah Tunnicliffe

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To view more inspiring quotes about family, you can also read these “I love my dad quotes” on FatherMag, or I Love my mom quotes on DPsayings.

Favorite Money Quotes

Does money buy happiness? To some extent, it does indeed: research by psychologist Kahnemann shown that “emotional well-being rose with income, as expected, but only to an annual salary of $75,000. Beyond that, people were no happier with higher salaries”. So it’s important to get your money in order, in particular when, like most people, you live life on a tight budget:

Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery. –Daniel Kahneman
Spending money on others—prosocial spending—leads to greater happiness than spending money on oneself. –Michael Norton (Source)
Making money isn’t hard in itself… What’s hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one’s life to. –Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you. –Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Mind your expenses no matter how little because it’s the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean.
Budgeting is not just for people who do not have enough money. It is for everyone who wants to ensure that their money is enough. – Rosette Mugidde Wamambe
Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving. – Warren Buffet
To acquire money requires valor, to keep money requires prudence, and to spend money well is an art. –Berthold Auerbach
The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind. –T.T. Munger
Happiness, health, wisdom; all the lasting goodness to be had in the world- cannot be purchased.
Instead of valuing your money, value your time. This mentality attaches more money to less hard work and is the key to success.
The greatest lesson to be learnt is that money is essential for survival but does not provide the essence of living.

Favorite Career Quotes

Open your door to enjoying what is important. Learn to say no, and protect the space you need to be fully present for your family and friends, your health and well-being, and the things that really matter – whether that is time to travel or time with friends or time in prayer or time for a hobby. We hope these quotes will inspire you to make good career choices.

Most people spend at least half of their waking hours working or commuting. So it makes sense that experiencing a sense of purpose at work makes you more productive and happier (Source). To get new inspiration and energy for your own career, read these simple life quotes about work and employment:

The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy, or passion. ― Terry Orlick
Having a successful career doesn’t mean following imposed timelines. It means tracing your own path to being the greatest at what you do, when you do it, and how you do it.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. –Steve Jobs
You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” – Oprah Winfrey
To wake up every morning feeling excited instead of dreading your job means you have found your true calling.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. – Colin Powell
The best way to predict the future is to create it. –Abraham Lincoln
Remind yourself that all successful people worked outside the system rather than becoming enslaved to it.
There is one common thing to be found in all successful entrepreneurs- they inspire entrepreneurship in others.
If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. –Thomas Jefferson
Build a career built off of community, camaraderie. and commitment, and watch as your legacy unfolds.
Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees. –J. Willard Marriott
To fall prey to narrow definitions of a successful career is to fall prey to constant self-doubt and under-confidence.
Risk something or forever sit with your dreams. –Herb Brooks
Success is also greatly determined by who you surround yourself with.
You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself. –Diana Ross
To succeed is human, to get back up again after failure, divine.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Sir Winston Churchill