Sometimes LESS Leads to GREATER FREEDOM | Quote of the Day by Henry David Thoreau, May 25th

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hi everyone, welcome back to my next quote of the day. Today we have a quote from Henry David Thoreau, one of my favorite authors, just an astonishing human being as far as I'm concerned. And this topic is on minimalism and simplicity and how much better it'll make your life. If you're looking to be happy and minimalism and simplicity should be a part of it.

[00:00:20]Here's what he said. Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable. He's got a double negative but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind to pursuing the best you can be and therefore being happy.

[00:00:39]He said, "They're disposable. They're dispensable. You can do without all the comforts and the luxuries, the things that you know, most of us are devoting our whole life to to our to getting, you know, the things that Madison Avenue and and the corporate world tells us you got to have this. You got to have this new aftershave. You got to have this new toothpaste. You got to have this new beer. Girls won't like you and boys won't like you unless you" and then fill in the blank and there's hundreds and thousands of things and those are just luxuries and comforts and let's face it, guys. The boys and girls aren't going to like you for or this cologne or that. No, it's it's nonsense.

[00:01:18]And what it does is it distracts you from the things that will make you truly happy and the things that make you desirable, truly desirable in the heart of other people. And so being distracted by all these things, a bigger car, you got a bigger car, a better car, the girls will notice you. The guys will say, "Oh, wow, look at that new car." If you lose a 10 lbs, all the guys will say, "Oh my, that's great." If you pump up some more muscle, the girls will say, "Oh my, that's so great." It's not true.

[00:01:48]None of those and none of those things are going to happen. They're all lies.

[00:01:51]But beyond that they're unimportant. If you're You're someone because you've pumped up some muscles or you've lost some weight and got a better figure, that's probably not the guy or the gal that's the best one.

[00:02:03]Are they seeing you or they seeing your body? Well, you need people in your life that see you. And so, we get distracted by all these other in disposable, unimportant luxuries and comforts in life.

[00:02:17]And they are a positive hindrance to living your very best life. They're not only not helping you, they are hindering you. You're spending your time on things that are valueless and the things that are of extraordinary value just get left behind and lost in this constant search for more, bigger, better, new uh it's just uh the good things go by the wayside. The things that people should see in you and be attracted to, you don't care about. All you care about is the outside things, the unimportant things.

[00:02:52]He went on to say it with respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meager life than the poor.

[00:03:01]So, I think the wisest among us see that. They don't reject comfort, they don't reject luxuries, they just say, "This isn't worth pursuing. This is needs a a a small amount of my time, but being happy, being fulfilled, finding purpose and meaning, and be a person of integrity and values, those are the important things and I'm going to put my energy into those. You know, we only have so much time and energy on this planet in our lives. And if we spend it all on these unimportant, meaningless, disposable crap like money and power and prestige and new cars and buying a newer, bigger, better home and on and on and on and no, no, you're chasing the wrong things and the things that are value, true tremendous earth-shaking value, eh, who cares? They're not important.

[00:03:59]So, you've got to switch your values.

[00:04:01]You've got to switch your time. Say no to the crap of life and say yes to the incredibly important and valuable things that will bring joy and happiness to you. Well, I know this was a a long quote and a long discussion. I hope you got something out of it. If you did, I hope you'll tell your family and friends, maybe uh hit that thumbs up button, and uh maybe subscribe. And I'll see you tomorrow on the next quote of the day.

[00:04:30]See you then.