Contentment is a quiet acceptance, a peacefulness, a calm amid the endless wanting. When I choose contentment, there's no competition with anyone. The race to keep up simply disappears. Once I realized this, I gave myself permission to see and accept things as they were-- myself included. No constant striving meant the person, place, experience, or relationship was enough. Right here, right now, it's enough.

I still crave change. I still work toward improvement. Contentment simply brings slowness to those changes. It brings quality, not quantity. Depth, not superficiality. It brings peace.
                        ~Brook McAlary in Slow :: simple living for a frantic world

Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want. We have entered into a new, wonderful, glorious freedom- the freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others. ~Richard Foster

It's important to say that when you have things you don't need, you are holding them from other people. You are keeping them from being useful to other people.  ~Bea Johnson

Close the door.
Remove the dust.
Stop being who you were,
+ change into who you are.
​~Paulo Coelho

Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
~Mary Oliver

Slow fashion is encouraging us as consumers to make peace with the fact that we can't own or wear it all, and we shouldn't. You can have great admiration for a designer, a trend, or a clothing item, but not wear it yourself. Some things are better appreciated from afar. ~Audrey Stanton ​ (via)

"Simplicity is the essence of happiness."  ~Cedric Bledsoe

The way to be happy-
keep your heart free from hate,
your mind free from worry,
live simply,
expect little,
give much.
​Scatter sunshine,
​forget self,
think of others.
~Norman Vincent Peale

He who is contented is rich.
​~Lao Tzu

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