Daphne Guinness Quotes

Buy less, choose well, make it last. Quality rather than quantity: That is true sustainability. If people only bought beautiful things rather than rubbish, we wouldn't have climate change!

It's better to have fewer things of quality than too much expendable junk.

When we think about the trends that millennials are taking toward simplicity, I think it's indicative of a cultural shift toward less of the 'more is more' for materialism sake and more of an emphasis on efficiency, value, and sustainability.

In the '80s, the world I was living in wasn't this world of consumption. There wasn't that much to buy, really. Actually I'm still struck by that. There's not an awful lot of stuff I want. Somebody quotes Diogenes, who's walking around saying, "How many things there are in the marketplace of which Diogenes has no need." I always feel that. Except of course when you're living in Venice, California and you see all these lovely houses!

There is a great need for the introduction of new values in our society, where bigger is not necessarily better, where slower can be faster, and where less can be more.

The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality.

I do think if you aim for quality, it's not so much about consumerism. The idea is 'Buy less, choose well, make it last.'

I am operating under the philosophy that I will simply use what I need and the rest - even if I still have it somewhere - is not mine. It is others'. It is for the healing of the natural world. And it is in the process of returning.

World will suffice for me in the future.

I think that I am responsible for the death of thousands of things and for the misery of thousands of people, just through the things that I buy and how I live my life, and these are not things that ever deserved to die.

It saddens me that in the 21st century, with all our knowledge and power, we are hearing more and more stories of possible extinctions due to people's choice. We are responsible for our choices and the only ones capable of changing our future.

I don't shop.

The planet is beautiful.

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.

We don't need an abundance of things.

The people that I associate with, the circle that I keep, is real simple, and sometimes we think or we're trained to believe that you always have to have more, more, more to make ourselves feel happy or beautiful, but it's the other way around for me. Simplicity is sexy.

I don't think everything has to be new all the time. You don't have to have the latest designer all the time to look good. Just have things you're comfortable with, have key pieces that you can sort of reinvent over and over again, and always keep things that you really love for a while.

We are living and consuming more than we need, and this impacts our survival.

I don't think anybody has the right to a huge family. There's already more people on the planet than our natural resources can even support, and if everybody were to have a high standard of living, we need three or four or five new planets to provide the resources. And this cannot be, so something has to change.

If we just stop producing stuff, if we stop being so capitalist, we stop taking resources from other third world countries, we'll be happy.

A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath.

Unless you absolutely have got to do it, don’t buy anything new.

I can tell you what I am working on, which is being more cognizant of my actions and how they affect others, most I will never meet. I've begun with my purchases. I'm focusing on quality versus quantity - a nicer tee-shirt with organic cotton and buying just one or two instead of five that are cheaper but made with GMO cotton, which is hard on Earth. It's caring a little more beyond myself. And I think it may be our only hope - and it feels much better to my soul, which in the end may be all we have.

The time will come when mankind will begin to get away from the consciousness of needing so many material things. More security and peace will be found in the simple life.

You get the most out of what you need the least.