This page lists my all-time favorite minimalism quotes to inspire a minimalist life.
You can find links to more intentional living quotes at the bottom of this page.
When you’re ready to dive deeper, here’s my recommended reading on minimalism:
25+ Minimalism Quotes to Live a Minimalist Life Today
“Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom … Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less. We focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more creativity, more experiences, more contribution, more contentment, more freedom. Clearing the clutter from life’s path helps make that room.” — Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, The Minimalists
“Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s important things—which aren’t things at all.” — Joshua Fields Millburn, The Minimalists
“I am complete, as are you, even in an empty room. The stuff, then, only augments that which is already whole.” — Joshua Fields Millburn, The Minimalists
“Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. It requires a conscious decision because it is a countercultural lifestyle that stands against the culture of overconsumption.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“If minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things that I most value, it is also about deciding what is most important in my life and removing the things that distract me from it. It is about removing the urgent for the sake of the important.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“Minimalism isn’t about removing things you love. It’s about removing the things that distract you from the things you love.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“Minimizing is actually optimizing—reducing the number of your possessions until you get to the best possible level for you and your family. It’s individual, freeing, and life promoting.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“Throw out the excess, clean up the mess, say no to stress, and live with less.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“I’ll take significance over stuff every time. I want to contribute more than to consume.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“The attractiveness of minimalism … seems so universal that I can’t help think that this is the way life is meant to be lived.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“I cannot think of a single negative effect or outcome that has occurred because of choosing to embrace and pursue minimalism.” — Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
“When you think about it, there isn’t a single person who was born into this world holding some material possession in their hands.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“I’ve defined minimalism as (1) reducing our necessary items to a minimum, and (2) doing away with excess so we can focus on the things that are truly important to us.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“My definition of a minimalist is a person who knows what is truly essential for him or herself, who reduces the number of possessions that they have for the sake of things that are really important to them.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“Everyone started out a minimalist. Our worth is not the sum of our belongings. Possessions can make us happy only for brief periods. Unnecessary material objects suck up our time, our energy, and our freedom. I think minimalists are starting to realize that.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“Reducing the number of possessions that you have is not a goal unto itself. I think minimalism is a method for individuals to find the things that are genuinely important to them. It’s a prologue for crafting your own unique story.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“When you become a minimalist, the energy you use will also become minimal. You won’t need to try to live in an eco-friendly way—it’ll come naturally. By minimizing your possessions and settling into a focused, simple life, you’ll find that the weight on your shoulders has become lighter and you’re living in a way that’s gentler on the environment.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“Having parted with the bulk of my belongings, I feel true contentment with my day-to day life. The very act of living brings me joy.” — Fumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things
“Decluttering is an action. Minimalism is a lifestyle.” — Sarah Anne Hayes
“Minimalism is not a lack of something. It’s simply the perfect amount of something.” — Nicholas Burroughs
“You may have occasion to possess or use material things, but the secret of life lies in never missing them.” — Gandhi
“Any half-awake materialist well knows – that which you hold holds you.” — Tom Robbins
“My ethos is ‘Life-Enhancing Minimalism’ —it’s about having and loving everything that you need but nothing more than what you need.” — Clodagh
“I am progressively ceasing to own things, not on a political-schism basis … but simply on a practical basis. Possession is becoming progressively burdensome and wasteful and therefore obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller
“The idea is to restrict his needs and, by this restriction, increase his freedom. We are slaves of millions of things … Einstein tried to reduce them to the absolute minimum. Long hair minimised the need for the barber. Socks can be done without. One leather jacket solves the coat problems for many years.” — Leopold Infeld, a colleague of Einstein’s at Princeton
“In the west, making a space complete means placing something there. But with tea ceremonies, or Zen, things are left incomplete on purpose to let the person’s imagination make that space complete.” — Naoki Numahata
“Technology put to use for intentional purposes in intentional ways. That’s digital minimalism.” — Cal Newport
“Minimalism is the reduction of quantity. Simplicity is the reduction of complexity. Minimal can sometimes be simplistic. Simple is not always minimal.” — Aen Tan
“Getting rid of what I didn’t absolutely need was painful, but at no point did I ever miss anything once it was gone. Ever.” — Mark Manson
“If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough…On one level, we all know this stuff already…The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness.” — David Foster Wallace
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