Voluntary simplicity has more to do with the state of mind than a person's physical surroundings and possessions.

Compassion will no longer be seen as a spiritual luxury for a contemplative few; rather it will be viewed as a social necessity for the entire human family.

We live almost completely immersed in a socially constructed reality that so fully absorbs our energy and attention that virtually none remains to experience the wonder of our existence.

The essence of voluntary simplicity is living in a way what is outwardly simple and inwardly rich.

Simplicity means to choose ways of living that touch the Earth more lightly and that reduce our ecological footprint.

In a world where nearly one billion people live near the edge of physical survival the relevance of intentional simplicity by the more affluent people of the world cannot be over estimated.

Simplicity means to feel such a sense of kinship with others that we choose to live simply so that others may simply live.

Poverty is mean and degrading to the human spirit, whereas a life of conscious simplicity can have both a beauty and a functional integrity that elevates the human spirit.

We are the leaders that we have been waiting for. We are the social innovators and entrepreneurs that we have been seeking.

Only after people express their anger and sadness over the broken dreams of material prosperity will they turn to the task of building a sustainable economy.

The character of a whole society is the cumulative result of countless small actions, day in and day out, of millions of persons.

Whatever you do to gain success, you have to hang in there and hope good things happen. Always think positive.

Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over.

The worst service, I fancy, that anyone can do for truth, is to set silly people writing on its behalf.

People never believe you.

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

I think I am probably in love with silence, that other world. And that I write, in some way, to negotiate seriously with it.

Lots of people with little kids or babies with Down syndrome tell me they aren't afraid of the future for their child because of what I am doing to help people understand it better.

The ideal you seek and hope to attain will not manifest itself, will not be realized by you, until you have imagined that you are already that ideal.

Just now the lilac is in bloom All before my little room.

The bar is the male kingdom. For centuries it was the bastion of male privilege, the gathering place for men away from their women, a place where men could go to freely indulge in The Bull Session.