Wise Words for the Good Life (Good Life Series)

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Summary: Words to Hang on Your Refrigerator
Review: This book is Helen Nearing's personal collection of astute quotations on various topics relating to homesteading and simple living. The topics are grouped into chapters, including: the rewards of country living, frugality and economy, weather and the seasons, gardening and the soil, woodlots and fire-making, money and true wealth, and solitude and contentment. Within each chapter, the quotations are organized chronologically according to when they were first published. Authors of quotations range from the well-known, such as Cicero, Shakespeare, and Thoreau, to others who have been forgotten or obscured by time. William Alcott makes a number of appearances in this book, as do Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Frank Lloyd Wright. To help you locate quotes by author, there is an index of authors' names at the end of the book.

Great words cover every page in this book. I would love to hang a selection of them on my refrigerator for prominent display every day, starting with "Men dig their Graves with their own Teeth and die more by those fatal instruments than the Weapons of their Enemies."-Thomas Moffett, Helth's Improvement (1590). One fact that becomes clear from reading this book is how long a history the philosophy of simplicity has in our culture. Ben Franklin reminds us "With frugality, there will be no lack; with extravagance, there's never enough." Later on, Frank Lloyd Wright points out "Many wealthy people are little more than the janitors of their possessions." In 1938, Lin Yutang saw simplicity as a movement of the future, arguing "I do not think that any civilization can be called complete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made a conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living."

One fact that struck me while reading this book is how even those who try to live simply today are blessed with a much higher standard of living than was ever imaginable for even the very rich in the past. In the chapter on woodlots and fire-making, a number of quotations refer to the need for conserving wood, using every scrap, and letting the house go cold at night. A proper fire that warmed the whole house could only be lit a few times a year. After all "it took fifty or more cords a year to feed the kitchen fire alone,"-William Reed, Life on the Border, 1882. Fifty cords of wood per year for just a kitchen fire?! Thanks to today's construction techniques and materials, and our modern efficient stoves, it's simple to keep a moderately-sized house (but gigantic by pioneer standards) at 80 degrees 24-hours a day all winter on only 3 cords of wood. Simplicity can be a wonderful blessing as it frees us from unnecessary appliances and possessions. Nevertheless, there are some facets of modern technology that can go a long way in making our lives truly simple.