David Shi Quotes & Sayings

Happiness is not synonymous with pleasure. It is, instead, a deeper emotion that originates from within ... Happiness results from a sense of mental and moral contentment with who we are, what we value, and how we invest our time and resources for purposes beyond ourselves. — David Shi

Liberating oneself from the addiction of consumerism and careerism promotes inner peace. — David Shi

Simplicity in its essence demands neither a vow of poverty nor a life of rural homesteading. As an ethic of self-conscious material moderation, it can be practiced in cities and suburbs, townhouses and condominiums. It requires neither a log cabin nor a hairshirt but a deliberate ordering of priorities so as to distinguish between the necessary and superfluous, useful and wasteful, beautiful and vulgar. — David Shi

As a myth of national purpose and as a program for individual conduct, the simple life has, in a sense, served as the nation's conscience, reminding Americans of what the founders had hoped they would be and thereby providing a vivifying counterpoint to the excesses of materialist individualism. — David Shi

It is our dreams that energize us more than our abilities. — David Shi