Matthieu Ricard Quotes

A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with-that's poverty-but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you're clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it's clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. (148)

... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.

Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.

I don't put the focus on things that don't matter.

Most people in business and within their personal lives move towards complexity. More To Dos. More projects. More products. More meetings. More possessions. More goals. The best - I suggest to you - move in the opposite direction.

It's important to keep life simple, and if I'm traveling, I only can do a couple of things, and those are the things that I'm meant to be doing.

It’s easy to forgo distractions and to not accumulate things when you have a larger goal on the horizon.

I soon learned to scent out that which was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from everything else, from the multitude of things which clutter up the mind and divert it from the essential.

Through your life, most people peel away the junk that's not useful, that's superfluous. You are determined to peel that away. I do one thing at a time. One man at a time. One car. One house. One child. One job.

I have learned to pare down what I do and still be effective and strong in a role.

I'm known for having a very small to-do list and a big don't-do list.

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along.

Live uncluttered lives so you could have time for what is most important.

There is but one art, to omit! Oh, if I knew how to omit I would ask no other knowledge. A man who knows how to omit would make an Iliad of a daily paper.

Simplicity requires ruthlessness.

There is but one art, to omit.

Focusing is about saying No.

Less is more.

Take the complications, rules, shoulds, musts, have tos, and so on out of your life. By uncomplicating your life and removing the trivial pursuits that occupy so much of it, you open a channel for the genius within you to emerge.

Deadlines aren't bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it.

When I was a teacher, teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever, whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books.

The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.

I intentionally abandoned the hard stuff early on because not only do I think it's useless, I think it's a distraction.

We've got some very good things to do without screwing around with sleeves.