There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace?
Peace PilgrimRead
Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.
Interpretation
Accumulating unnecessary items can create stress and hinder personal freedom; true happiness comes from simplicity.
This quote by Peace Pilgrim emphasizes the idea that possessions can weigh us down and complicate our lives. It suggests that by embracing a simpler lifestyle and minimizing our material needs, we can achieve greater happiness and freedom. The essence of contentment lies not in having more, but in appreciating what we already possess and maintaining a balance in our lives.
In practice
In a workshop about minimalism, we discussed how 'unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens' and how reducing clutter can lead to a happier life.
There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace?
Do not suppress it - that would hurt you inside. Do not express it - this would not only hurt you inside, it would cause ripples in your surroundings. What you do is transform it.
Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.
One little person, giving all of her time to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time, can make history.
Modesty is the color of virtue.
To say that 'prayer changes things' is not as close to the truth as saying, 'prayer changes me and then I change things.' God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things.
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
I cannot accept this invitation [to celebrate the bicentenial of the Constitution], for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever 'fixed' at the Philadelphia Convention... To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war.
I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.