National Simplicity Day 2020: National Simplicity Day is celebrated on July 12 to honor Henry David Thoreau, the author, poet, and philosopher.
In his book “Walden” (1854) and other writings, Thoreau described ways people could tap into themselves and be happier through a less hectic lifestyle. He encouraged people to live simply by decluttering unnecessary things.
According to American essayist Mark Grieff, ‘Thoreau made war on jobs, debts, houses, inheritances, governments, states. His work Civil Disobedience was a major influence on both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr’.
Henry believed that our focus should be more on nature, knowledge, self-reliance, and creating our path. The major goal of Simplicity Day is to make us take a step back from our on the go-lives and focus on the basics, at least for a day.
On the occasion of National Simplicity Day, here are some inspiring quotes by Henry David Thoreau:
- “Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something”.
- “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
- “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.”
- “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
- “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
- “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
- “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
