green leafed plant on clear glass vase filled with waterPhoto Credit: Sarah Dorweiler

K.I.S.S. - "Keep it Simple and Smile" - has always been a favorite of mine and for me, when I remember to take that approach then less grief, and more success and happiness, comes into my life. Here we have assembled the best quotes we could find on simplicity, the simple life, minimalism, - the whole concept of less is more - for you to contemplate. Please share the ones you like best. We wish you a peaceful, relaxing, simply wonderful day!

Live simply so others may simply live.

--Mother Teresa

Simplicity is the glory of expression.

--Walt Whitman

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

--Samuel Smiles

How many undervalue the power of simplicity! But it is the real key to the heart.

--William Wordsworth

The greatest ideas are the simplest.

--William Golding

Longer Version:

The greatest ideas are the simplest. Now there was something to be done they worked with passion.


I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

--Henry Miller

Living simply makes loving simple.

--bell hooks

There must be more to life than having everything.

--Maurice Sendak

To be simple is not always as easy as it seems.

--Ferdinand Hodler

Discern the vital few from the trivial many.

--Greg McKeown

Don't rush. Go slowly. Be present.

--Leo Babauta

You don't need more space, you need less stuff.

--Joshua Becker

Keep things simple and practical so that an activity that fuels you doesn't become this massive, daunting obligation. Your self-care activity doesn't need to be yet another thing that lingers on your to-do list.

--Melissa Steginus

Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.

--Bryant H. McGill

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

--Lao Tzu

Life is simple. You just have to stop trying to figure it out.

--Marty Rubin

Simplicities are enormously complex. Consider the sentence I love you.

--Richard O. Moore

Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.

--Edsger Dijkstra

Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

--Alan Perlis

When you give your items away, don't keep the excess of your pride.

--Bremer Acosta

Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.

--Sir Joshua Reynolds

Simplicity embarks not on what is seen by the naked eye, but dwelling on what is in the heart.

--Unknown Author

A world-changing vision often necessitates a profound simplicity in the user experience.

--Joe Gebbia

I think the key to writing hit songs is simplicity.

--Bonnie McKee

The older I get, the more I desire simplicity.

--Andy Mineo

Simplicity is often one of the greatest strengths.

--Erik Spoelstra

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

--Book Of Mormon

Simplifiers ensure that simplicity is always a goal, a benchmark and a means to arrive at success, leaving us with an actionable lesson -- if you want to innovate, simplify is the new disrupt.

--Margaret Molloy

Nature has a great simplicity and, therefore, a great beauty.

--Richard P. Feynman

Simplicity is a strict taskmaster.

--Jason Cooley

Simplicity is the shortest path to a solution.

--Ward Cunningham

Simplicity is sometimes sexier in its naked honesty. But simplicity isn't simple. It demands great ingredients and on-point technique.

--Mia Stainsby

I prefer the honestly simple to the ingeniously wicked.

--William Penn

In times of great complexity, simplicity is compelling.

--Dipanjan Chaterjee

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free.

--Joseph Brackett

Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious.

--George Meredith

To be alive is to totally and openly participate in the simplicity and elegance of here and now.

--Don Altman

Simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.

--Albrecht Durer

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement.

--William Morris

Stay low, stay quiet, keep it simple, don't expect too much, enjoy what you have.

--Dean Koontz

Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and a criterion of beauty.

--Mahlon Hoagland

Because your question searches for deep meaning, I shall explain in simple words.

--Dante Alighieri

To every problem, there is a most simple solution.

--Agatha Christie

I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.

--Fred Rogers

This problem, once solved, will be simple.

--Thomas Edison

The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.

--Albert Einstein

Yes, everything is simple. It's people who complicate things.

--Albert Camus

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

--Al McGuire

True happiness is found in simple, seemingly unremarkable things.

--Eckhart Tolle

Genius is making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex.

--Albert Einstein

When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.

--Steve Jobs

See the world from another perspective and things would be simple.

--Vikrmn

I wish for a simple life.

--Fennel Hudson

Transforming the complex to the simple is pure genius.

--Doris P. Johnson

The simpler the life, the happier we get!

--Avijeet Das

Often removing is improving.

--Freequill

The moon fascinates us in her simplicity.

--Avijeet Das

Be a simple nothing and an ordinary nobody because that's the greatest thing you can be.

--Marty Rubin

According to history, quite a few times simple man turned out to be the significant man.

--Amit Kalantri

Sometimes simplicity and elegance are indistinguishable from each other.

--Amit Kalantri

Simple is her aim; to be a candle that lightens the world with the name of the Beloved.

--Mahrukh Memon

One must learn to be simple, anyone can manage to be complex.

--Amit Kalantri

The most complicated thing for people is simplicity.

--Meir Ezra

All the problems you have are simple. What's complicated is getting you to see simplicity.

--Meir Ezra

Hope is born in simple places to simple hearts that have enough space for a miracle to happen.

--Craig D. Lounsbrough

If you don't make it simple you simply are not going to make it.

--Meir Ezra

The grandeur of God reveals itself through simple things.

--Paulo Coelho

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. At the edge of perception, weird things dance and howl.

--M.H. Boroson

To be simple is no small matter.

--Gustave Flaubert

The essence of life is not in the great victories and grand failures, but in the simple joys.

--Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life itself is simple...it's just not easy.

--Steve Maraboli

It's all very simple. But maybe because it's so simple, it's also hard.

--Natsuki Takaya

Excellent! I cried. Elementary, said he.

--Arthur Conan Doyle

A reaction, to be pleasant, must be simple.

--Marsden Hartley

There is no problem so complicated that you can't find a very simple answer to it if you look at it right.

--Douglas Adams

Great floods have flown From simple sources.

--William Shakespeare

If you want to destroy a nation, give it too much -- make it greedy, miserable and sick.

--John Steinbeck

The important things are always simple.

--Albert Einstein

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

--Lin Yutang

Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

--Charles Mingus

Longer Version:

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.


The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn't simple.

--Doris Janzen Longacre

It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature.

--Laura Ingalls Wilder

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple.

--Laozi

If one's life is simple, contentment has to come.

--Dalai Lama

What we really need is to realize how little we really need.

--Ashleigh Brilliant

Every day, I like to wake up and remind myself to be grateful of the simple things.

--Miranda Kerr

Simplicity, suitability and proportion.

--Elsie De Wolfe

In the beginning was simplicity.

--Richard Dawkins

Simplicity of approach is always best.

--Charlie Chaplin

Three Tips: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.

--Jakob Nielsen

Simplicity requires ruthlessness.

--Tim Ferriss

True refinement seeks simplicity.

--Bruce Lee

Simplicity is the trademark of genius.

--Robin Sharma

Do few things but do them well, simple joys are holy.

--Francis of Assisi

Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony.

--Bruce Lee

The rule is to carry as little as possible.

--Henry David Thoreau

Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.

--Linus Torvalds

Simplicity, cher enfant, is in reality the deepest cunning.

--Fyodor Dostoevsky

A simple love can be deeper than any ocean.

--Laura Chouette
green leafed plant on clear glass vase filled with water

Thank you for checking out our selection of quotes on simplicity! Please consider sharing and also connect with us on social media. Wishing you a simply fabulous day!