The mass of men lead lives of quite desperation... I am convinced that to maintain oneself on this earth is not a hardship, but a pastime, if we live simply and wisely. Most of the luxuries , and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
Do people ever do what they really wish? What they by nature intended to do, and what they were best suited for. Everywhere I see people squandering the precious substance of their lives in pursuit of material gains. Everywhere I see people feverishly piling up property and possessions, enslaving themselves at the cost of things that really count.
I am sure there is something more to life than the mere collection of treasures.
World's greatest men, wisest men, great thinkers, philosophers have lived lives of simplicity. Can we take any clue from them.
Henry David Thoreau lived for few years in Walden Woods in solitude as an experiment. He then returned to Concord and wrote "Walden". He said Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in the extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two and three and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million - count a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simply, simplify....
So I say what Thoreau said. Simplify your life. Don't waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don't burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple, and enjoy what you have. Simplify, simplify. Don't fritter your life away on non-essentials. Don't destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past.
Live in the present, enjoy the present. Simplify!
