Customer Reviews

Less Is More: An Anthology of Ancient & Modern Voices Raised in Praise of Simplicity

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

'Less is More' is a collection of quotes and very short essays from a multitude of sources on the value of simplicity. Some of those quoted lived and wrote many centuries ago, while others are from the near present, and of course, there are many in between. Some of the more recognizable people quoted include Ghandi, Thomas Hobbes, Socrates, Thoreau, Shakespeare, St. Francis, Pascal, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, John Kenneth Galbraith, Muhammad, Arthur Miller, and H.G. Wells. Some of the sources used are the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Dhammapada, and the Tao Te Ching.

The quotes are grouped according to the various facets of this subject, although some of them are more obviously related to living simply than others. Most of the quotes range from a few sentences to a paragraph or two. The excerpt from the first chapter is not representative of the overall book. I have owned an earlier edition of this book for many years and continue to find it inspiring. I only wish that there were a hardcover edition available as my paperback copy is becoming rather worn from being read and re-read by myself and the people I have lent it to.

Having read many books of the simplicity genre you will find that this book is unique. It has challenged me to deeply reflect upon my life and how I can further shed unecessary burdens. Before reading this book I already lived simple. After reading this book it shined the light in areas I was still attached to. This book will have an impact on my life forever. It exposes the emptiness of a life based solely on money, career, possessions, and the daily grind. Awakening the dormant spiritual giant within us that longs for depth and meaning in a society gone mad with superficiality. "Less is More" can help guide one toward the path of freedom, beauty, simplicty and adventure.

I bought my copy circa 1978 at age 35 and shared it with my wife. Even though we were already instinctively thinking along these lines this book impressed us greatly. It's title became something of a household quip and we found ourselves frequently dipping into it and finding something applicable to the rat race. It became so dog-eared that we had it custom bound as a family treasure. Its wisdom has seen us into a early, modest, and satisfactory retirement.

Lots of products claim that they will change your life. This one does...

Has many historical quotes for motivation, but not hands on approaches that get you really moving toward your goals. Here are a few ideas that I hope may be helpful in your quest to simplify.
First I have been working diligently on de cluttering my personal and business life. I have read so many simplifying and de-cluttering and efficiency books I almost have a clutter problem with all the books on the subject. (Cured that recently too with the Kindle 2.)
I run three business. One brick and morter and two online. I was getting over four hundred emails a day and was drowning in mail and spam. So I utilized ideas / suggestions from several sources to cure my problems. From the Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss we started using detailed faq's lists on our websites and an auto-responder that answered many questions so we would no longer have to reply to as many emails. For the ones we do answer the questions are predictable and we saved the answers as email drafts that way we just cut and paste and all done.
For the Spam we ran our eight email accounts into one google mail as they have the best spam filters and you can reply from the email address to which the mail was sent so they dont know that anything is happening. And suggestions from the life hacker Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better by Gina Tripani has some interesting ideas for sure.
Keeping your inbox empty we use suggestions from Stress Less and Zen to Done by Leo Babauta and you would not believe how much better you feel when things are under control. But it is you who must Work the system or you will be overwhelmed again.
A much more detailed program is used in Getting Things Done David Allen book, but the above is kind of the simplified version that I currently prefer.
And for just getting rid of all the clutter in your life any of the books from Peter Walsh, How to Organize (Just About) Everything, and Enough Already, are great even though they tend to recover some of the material from his other books somewhat but thats not a big deal since the info is worth repeating. Another good author but she covers pretty much the same thing is Julie Morgenstern. The books by Koch on the 80/20 principle are also worth looking into. For the paper clutter in my life I have a digital sender scanner and have scanned over four full file cabinets into Adobe PDF computer files. I have done this with pictures too as you can also save them info Jpeg and Jiff files. While there are tons more books out there and I seem to have most of them, these are the best to get things under control and to get you the time to do the things that matter to you.

I was in a very stressful time in my life when I bought this book....The binder has since fallen apart(i've had it a few years)but I hold it together as best I can cause I love this book. The book is an anthology of quotes from great people over time. You would have to agree with the message that LEss is More and you'll love it.

In my younger days, I was very much into E.F.Schumacher. I didn't have much stuff of my own then, and didn't expect to. Since then, I've accumulated more. Now I have too much clutter. I won't do without Christian faith, family, friends, but the rest is encumbering. There are many good precepts in this book, some from faiths I don't share. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I can't find it. Perhaps I loaned it, but no one will admit to borrowing it. Now I wish I could return it to the pile of books beside my bed.

The collection of different authors is spliced together like a newspaper collage from different countries. Difficult to follow and awkward to read.

great and wonderful........reverse the title and it still comes out the same.