I still remember watching Fight Club for the first time. It was the one line from Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, that stood out to me: “The things you own,” he says, “end up owning you.”
At the time, I didn’t have the worldly perspective I do now. But something about that quote resonated with me. Now after traveling to more than 50 countries and living nomadically for 8+ years, I can see how excess possessions can create a sense of chaos and overwhelm.
Inspired by that line, I’ve curated a list of quotes about minimalism that can open your mind to the idea of owning less.
My hope is that at least one of them will give you a new perspective.
Quotes About Minimalism
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Henry David Thoreau

Inexpensive is not a good reason to buy something, & expensive is not a good reason to keep something.
Peter Walsh
Less is more.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
The White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland
For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.
Benjamin Franklin
The more I threw away, the more I found.
Don DeLillo
Minimalism means not trying to improve perfection.
Bryant McGill
You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.
Greg McKeown

Get rid of clutter and you may just find it was blocking the door you’ve been looking for.
Katrina Mayer
One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in.
Francis Jourdain
People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.
Epictetus
If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more?
Roy T. Bennett
Buy less, choose well, make it last.
Vivienne Westwood
Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause of it.
Peter Walsh
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo Da Vinci

We need much less than we think.
Maya Angelou
If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.
Paulo Coelho
Clutter is the enemy of clarity.
Julia Cameron
I’ve learned that minimalism is not about what you own, it’s about why you own it.
Brian Gardner
There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.
Jackie French Koller
It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
Bertrand Russel

We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy.
Richard Foster
Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.
Joshua Becker
Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Albert Einstein
If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements.
Dalai Lama
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.
Edwin Way Teale
Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris
Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life.
Katharine Fullerton Gerould

We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.
Anna C. Brackett
The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
Elise Boulding
The simplest things are often the truest.
Richard Bach
The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isnt simple.
Doris Janzen Longacre
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Hans Hofmann
Purposefully owning less begins to take us out of the unwinnable game of comparison.
Joshua Becker
The essence of philosophy is that we should live so that our happiness depends as little as possible on external causes.
Epictetus

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
Isaac Newton
There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
Leo Tolstoy
Simplicity is the glory of expression.
Walt Whitman
For everything we say yes to, we’re saying no to something else.
Ryder Carroll
Minimalism is really about a reassessment of priorities, so you can remove unnecessary things from your life; get rid of things like possessions, activities, and relationships that do not improve or bring value to your life.
Jane Andrews
We overvalue nonessentials like a nicer car or house, or even intangibles like the number of our followers on Twitter or the way we look in our Facebook photos. As a result, we neglect activities that are truly essential, like spending time with our loved ones, or nurturing our spirit, or taking care of our health.
Greg McKeown
Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Henry David Thoreau

If we were all minimalists instead of conspicuous consumers, there would be less demand on the world’s resources and wed have a smaller, less berserk economy. We’d be less likely to harm the only planet we’ll ever have, and the super~rich would have fewer ways to exploit us.
Robert Wringham
The best criterion for choosing what to keep and what to discard is whether keeping it will make you happy, whether it will bring you joy.
Marie Kondō
The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.
Marie Kondō
Sometimes, minimizing possessions means a dream must die. But this is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, it takes giving up the person we wanted to be in order to fully appreciate the person we can actually become.
Joshua Becker
Minimalism is the pursuit of the essence of things, not the appearance.
Claudio Silvestrin
Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.
Marie Kondō
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Seneca

It is important to note that we don’t think that sentimental items are bad or evil or that holding on to them is wrong. We don’t. Rather, we think the pernicious nature of sentimental items – and overt sentimentality in general – is far more subtle. If you want to get rid of an item but the only reason you are holding on to it is for sentimental reasons – if it is weighing on you, if its an anchor – then perhaps its time to get rid of it, perhaps it is time to free yourself of the weight.
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.
Marie Kondō
Minimalism is a tool we use to live a meaningful life. There are no rules. Rather, minimalism is simply about stripping away the unnecessary things in your life so you can focus on what’s important.
Joshua Fields Millburn
Ultimately, minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can focus on lives most important things~which actually arent things at all.
Joshua Fields Millburn
Minimalism can help you find contentment and satisfaction and finally put meaning into your life. Just removing unnecessary things that do not bring any value to you will essentially open the door to a brand new perspective on living.
Jane Andrews
The point is that minimalism is a tool to help you achieve freedom. Freedom from fear, freedom from worry, freedom from overwhelm, freedom from guilt, freedom from depression, freedom from enslavement. Freedom. Real freedom.
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
One can with but moderate possessions do what one ought.
Aristotle

Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself; thus, it’s up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous to your life.
Joshua Fields Millburn
The things you own end up owning you.
Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
We’re living our life depending on the space we’ve got rather than creating our space to fit our lives.
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
Minimalism is a tool to eliminate life’s excess, focus on the essentials, and find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.
Joshua Fields Millburn
… A home is a home for one reason: we call it home. The stuff doesn’t make it your home – you do.
Joshua Fields Millburn
We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.
Marie Kando
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
Epicurus

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
E.F. Schumacher
Through our long peace and seldom sickness…we are grown more populous than ever heretofore…many thousands of idle persons are within this realm, which, having no way to be sett on work, be either mutinous and seek alteration in the state, or at least very burdensome to the commonwealth.
Richard Hakluyt
Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.
Joshua Fields Millburn
We all know that possessions do not equal happiness. It’s just that we’ve been told this lie for so long that we start to believe it, our hearts start to buy into it, and it begins to affect the way we live our lives.
Joshua Fields Millburn
That’s the only kind of success I know.
Joshua Fields Millburn
The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
Socrates

Our excessive possessions are not making us happy. Even worse, they are taking us away from the things that do. Once we let go of the things that don’t matter, we are free to pursue all the things that really do matter.
Joshua Becker
Owning less is better than organizing more.
Joshua Becker
Don’t just declutter, de~own.
Joshua Becker
See also The UK’s Problem With Recycling and How it is Being Addressed.
Joshua Becker
With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures, and some books, I live without envy.
Lope de Vega
It’s better to have extra time on your hands and extra money in your pocket than extra stuff in your closet.
Joshua Becker
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Henry David Thoreau

Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
Steve Jobs
The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.
Marie Kando
Truthfully, though, most organizing is nothing more than well~planned hoarding.
Joshua Fields Millburn
Too many of us are over~committing to others and under~committing to ourselves. Let’s stop living at a frantic pace if our hearts are pulling us to a slower, more focused way of life. Let’s start honoring our own needs for rest, self~care, and balance. Let’s recommit to our own vision and finally listen to the voice inside.
Erica Layne
If you need nice things to impress your friends, you have the wrong friends.
Joshua Becker
This is the beautiful secret of minimalism: It may seem like it’s about stuff, but once you’ve cut through the clutter and adopted a new frame of mind, you learn that it’s barely about the stuff at all.
Erica Layne
The killer question: “If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?
Greg McKeown

The people who are rebelling meaningfully don’t buy a lot of stuff.
David Foster Wallace
The intention of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less. Its a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence.
Duane Elgin
Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor – it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.
Peter Walsh
I’m a big believer in minimalism. Not materialist minimalism, although that’s part of it, but time and energy minimalism. The body is given only so much energy a day.
James Altucher
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris
have my own definition of minimalism, which is that which is created with a minimum of means.
La Monte Young
How much does he lack himself, he who must have many things?
Sen no Rikyū

Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital.
Dalai Lama
The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple.
Doris Janzen Longacre
Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high-quality life.
Linda Breen Pierce
Learn to live with less so that you appreciate more.
James Ryan
We were a society dying of too much choice.
Margaret Atwood

Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor, it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.
Peter Walsh
Bottom line: If our lives are burdened with clutter, we’re giving the best of ourselves away to the things that matter least.
Erica Layne
If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris
Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly.
Nathan W. Morris
In our overcrowded homes today, most possessions are not truly ‘belongings’. They are only distracting us from the things that do belong.
Joshua Becker
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Lao Tzu

You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Steve Jobs
It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
Amelia Barr
That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity.
Steve Jobs
The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.
Joshua Becker
Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world.
Oscar Wilde

Have the courage to build your life around what is really most important to you.
Joshua Becker
In the rush of today’s world, and with more than half of us now living in cities, the majority of people are less and less connected with the spectacle of nature.
Louise Leakey
This is the beautiful secret of minimalism: It may seem like it’s about stuff, but once you’ve cut through the clutter and adopted a new frame of mind, you learn that it’s barely about ‘the stuff’ at all.
Erica Layne
I have to remind myself to live simply and not overindulge, which is a constant battle in a material world.
Sandra Cisneros
So much of our life is lived in a fog of automatic, habitual behavior.
Dan Harris
I’ve found that the less stuff I own, the less my stuff owns me.
Nathan W. Morris

We spend so much time on the hunt, but nothing ever quite does it for us. And we get so wrapped up in the hunt that it makes us kind of miserable.
Dan Harris
Minimalism isn’t about removing things you love. It’s about removing the things that distract you from the things you love.
Joshua Becker
I think we’re confused about what’s going to make us happy.
Sam Harris
It is clear that, as human beings, we have strong attachment initially in our lives to people who are caring for us. And sometimes it feels like those attachments spill over to objects as if they are as important as people.
Gail Steketee
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Vernon Howard

Nature is pleased with simplicity.
Isaac Newton
Parting Words
Even if you’re not quite ready to completely downside your life, hopefully you found inspiration in this list of quotes.
When you declutter your life, you also declutter your mind. You clear more room for the things that matter. You start to connect with intrinsic goals that help you connect with what truly makes you happy.
So I encourage you to start making more conscious decisions about how you spend your precious time, money, energy and other resources. Your future self will thank you.
What’s your favorite quote about minimalism? Let me know, I’ll keep this post updated.
P.S. If you liked this, you might also enjoy these related quote collections:
- Quotes About Slowing Down in Life
- Quotes About Simplifying Life
- Quotes About Self Actualization
- Quotes About Nature
- Quotes About Wandering
Originally Published: Sept 16, 2022
✍️ Sharbot Lake, Ontario