Thomas a Kempis Quotes

I don't need that much to live - we don't need that much to have a wonderful life. I learned that from animals.

My greatest skill has been to want but little.

For it is better to suffer a little want than to have too much.

Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants.

Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants.

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.

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

The more you learn to live without, the more you'll have to live with.

Be satisfied with needs instead of wants.

I drive one car. I own one house. That's enough for me.

We shall have to practise to lead our life on the basis of our needs, not under the influence of our greed.

I'm not a 'more is better' guy.

I'm not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don't have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That's the bottom line.

The remedy against want is to moderate your desires.

There are few things it is more important to learn than how to live on little and be therewith content: for the less we need what is without, the more leisure have we to live within.

How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!

The Quaker upbringing was not strict, but it was frugal. Extremely frugal. One was always encouraged to give away one's worldly goods.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

Contentment consist not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.

If you want to be happy, live discreetly. Does that make sense in English?

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

I live a pretty simple life.

I really don't require a whole lot in life.

Hollywood could use less instead of more of everything.