A Literary Prescription for

Simplicity

For the quiet freedom of less, and the room it makes to notice what you already have.

Simplicity is not about deprivation. It is about clearing away the noise, the clutter and the excess so you can finally see, and enjoy, what actually matters. In a world forever urging us towards more, choosing less is a quiet act of freedom: fewer things, fewer commitments, fewer distractions, and in the space that opens up, more peace, more attention, more life. These books and poems are for lightening the load, inside and out, and remembering how little you truly need.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these are practical guides to clearing the clutter of things, time and attention, and some are unhurried immersions in a simpler way of living. Non-fiction and fiction together, they share one freeing idea: that a lighter life is a fuller one, and that most of what truly nourishes us was never something we could buy.

Goodbye, Things

Fumio Sasaki · 2015

Sasaki, a self-confessed former hoarder, describes how radically paring back his possessions transformed his sense of freedom, focus and contentment. Calm, honest and quietly persuasive, it is minimalism explained from the inside rather than preached. A gently inspiring read for anyone who suspects their things have started to own them.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo · 2011

Kondo’s global phenomenon is really a philosophy in disguise: keep only what sparks joy, and let the rest go with gratitude. Beneath the folding lies a genuinely freeing idea about surrounding yourself only with what you love. Practical and oddly moving, it is the book that started a worldwide longing for less.

Soulful Simplicity

Courtney Carver · 2017

After a health scare, Carver began stripping her life back to what mattered, and found more love, health and time on the other side. Warm and personal rather than preachy, her book makes simplicity feel like an act of self-care. A gentle, encouraging guide for anyone who wants less clutter and more life, without the guilt.

The More of Less

Joshua Becker · 2016

Becker makes the practical, hopeful case that owning less creates room for more of what we actually want: time, money, freedom and purpose. Clear and motivating, it reframes minimalism as addition rather than sacrifice. A grounded, family-friendly guide for anyone ready to stop accumulating and start living.

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport · 2019

Newport applies the philosophy of less to our most cluttered space of all: our attention. He offers a thoughtful, practical way to reclaim focus and calm from the endless pull of screens. Essential reading for anyone who feels that simplifying their life must now begin with simplifying their phone.

Cider with Rosie

Laurie Lee · 1959

Lee’s luminous memoir of a Cotswold childhood in the years after the First World War is an immersion in a slower, simpler world of seasons, village life and small wonders. His gorgeous prose makes the ordinary shimmer. A restful, transporting read that reminds you how rich a life of few things can be.

Cannery Row

John Steinbeck · 1945

Steinbeck’s warm, wandering novel finds deep richness in the lives of the down-and-out characters of a Monterey street, who have almost nothing and want for little. It is a quiet celebration of friendship, idleness and the good life stripped of ambition. A gently joyful read about how little it truly takes to live well.

Village School

Miss Read · 1955

The first of Miss Read’s beloved Fairacre novels follows a year in a tiny English village school, told with warmth, humour and an eye for the small pleasures of an unhurried life. Nothing dramatic happens, and that is precisely the charm. A restful, comforting immersion in a simpler, slower world.

Poems about simplicity

For a lighter life

“Deer Park”

Wang Wei, c.740, trans. from the Chinese

Empty mountain, no one to be seen.
Yet, hear the sound of someone talking.
Late sunlight enters the deep wood,
And shines again upon the green moss.

Wang Wei, the great Tang-dynasty poet-painter, captures simplicity itself in four lines: an empty mountain, a distant voice, low light on moss. Nothing happens, and everything is present. It is a poem to slow the breath and clear the mind, twelve centuries old and still perfectly still. A small masterpiece of doing, and needing, almost nothing.

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from “Tall Nettles”

Edward Thomas, 1916

Tall nettles cover up, as they have done
These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough
Long worn out…
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

Thomas finds quiet beauty in the most overlooked corner of a farmyard: weeds, rusty tools, a film of dust. His gift is for loving the plain and unregarded, which is simplicity’s whole art. A gentle poem that teaches the eye to rest, and delight, in what is ordinary and near at hand.

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from “Pleasant Sounds”

John Clare, c.1830

The rustling of leaves under the feet in woods…
The crumping of cat-ice and snow down wood-rides…
The rustle of birds’ wings startled from their nests,
…The trample of robins and wood-larks on the brown leaves.

Clare simply lists the small sounds of the countryside, and in doing so hands you a whole practice of simple attention. There is nothing to buy, achieve or own here, only the free, endless richness of noticing. A lovely reminder that the simplest life, fully attended to, is anything but poor.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about simplicity to keep

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo da Vinci

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It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca

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The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

Hans Hofmann

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He who knows he has enough is rich.

Lao Tzu

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You do not need more to be happy. Most of the time you need less, and the quiet to notice what you already have.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

Clearing the noise

A calming practice for settling into stillness and the present moment, and an essay on making peace with, and finding quiet abundance in, the life you already have.

A Meditation for Peace, Stillness and Presence

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A calming guided practice for clearing the mental clutter and returning to the simple, spacious peace of the present moment.

Listen Now For Free

Learning to Belong to the Life You Have

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On setting down the endless wanting of more, and discovering that the simple life in front of you is already enough.

Read the Essay →

The Inner Peace Toolkit

Digital Self-Care Toolkit · Georgia Clare

2 guided meditations, an Inner Peace Journal, an affirmations eBook, 10 printable affirmation prints and 10 calming phone wallpapers — small daily practices to come back to whenever you need to slow down and reconnect with yourself.

Explore the Toolkit →

Questions people ask

Reading for Simplicity

Where should I start?

Start with Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki, a clear, calming account of how owning far less brought its author unexpected freedom and peace. And if you would rather ease in gently, Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver is a warm, human guide to making room for what matters. The poems below are small, restful reminders of how little we really need.

What can I read to simplify my life?

Books that lighten the load, inside and out. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and The More of Less help you clear the physical clutter, while Digital Minimalism does the same for your attention. For simplicity as a whole way of living, Cider with Rosie is a warm, unhurried immersion in a slower world. Or begin with the poems and the lines to keep below.

Which quotes about simplicity are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” (Leonardo da Vinci), “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” (Henry David Thoreau) and “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” (Seneca). You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really help me live more simply?

It genuinely can. Simplicity is less about having nothing than about making room, clearing away what does not matter so you can see what does. The best books hand you both practical steps and a quieter way of seeing, and reading itself is one of the simplest, richest pleasures there is. These are pages to slow you down and lighten you, and to remind you how much of life’s abundance was never for sale.

Simplicity

Prescribed reading

For a lighter life

Quotes about simplicity to keep

Clearing the noise

Reading for Simplicity

Where should I start?

What can I read to simplify my life?

Which quotes about simplicity are worth keeping?

Can reading really help me live more simply?

More prescriptions await.