Joshua Fields Millburn > Quotes

“You can't change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“The things you own end up owning you.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“Love people, use things. The opposite doesn’t work.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“Now, before I spend money I ask myself one question: Is this worth my freedom? Like: Is this coffee worth two dollars of my freedom? Is this shirt worth thirty dollars of my freedom? Is this car worth thirty thousand dollars of my freedom? In other words, am I going to get more value from the thing I’m about to purchase, or am I going to get more value from my freedom?”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“But even while Rome is burning, there’s somehow time for shopping at IKEA. Social imperatives are a merciless bitch. Everyone is attempting to buy what no one can sell.  See, when I moved out of the house earlier this week, trawling my many personal belongings in large bins and boxes and fifty-gallon garbage bags, my first inclination was, of course, to purchase the things I still “needed” for my new place. You know, the basics: food, hygiene products, a shower curtain, towels, a bed, and umm … oh, I need a couch and a matching leather chair and a love seat and a lamp and a desk and desk chair and another lamp for over there, and oh yeah don’t forget the sideboard that matches the desk and a dresser for the bedroom and oh I need a coffeetable and a couple end tables and a TV-stand for the TV I still need to buy, and don’t these look nice, whadda you call ’em, throat pillows? Oh, throw pillows. Well that makes more sense. And now that I think about it I’m going to want my apartment to be “my style,” you know: my own motif, so I need certain decoratives to spruce up the decor, but wait, what is my style exactly, and do these stainless-steel picture frames embody that particular style? Does this replica Matisse sketch accurately capture my edgy-but-professional vibe? Exactly how “edgy” am I? What espresso maker defines me as a man? Does the fact that I’m even asking these questions mean I lack the dangling brass pendulum that’d make me a “man’s man”? How many plates/cups/bowls/spoons should a man own? I guess I need a diningroom table too, right? And a rug for the entryway and bathroom rugs (bath mats?) and what about that one thing, that thing that’s like a rug but longer? Yeah, a runner; I need one of those, and I’m also going to need…”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“When purchasing gifts becomes the focal point of the season, we lose focus on what's truly important.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn

“Truthfully, though, most organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“You needn't settle for a mediocre life just because the people around you did.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“People often avoid the truth for fear of destroying the illusions they’ve built.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“The most important reason to live in the moment is nothing lasts forever. Enjoy the moment while it’s in front of you. Be present. Accept life for what it is: a finite span of time with infinite possibilities.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.’ ”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“Happiness, as far as we are concerned, is achieved through living a meaningful life, a life that is filled with passion and freedom, a life in which we can grow as individuals and contribute to other people in meaningful ways. Growth and contribution: those are the bedrocks of happiness. Not stuff. This may not sound sexy or marketable or sellable, but it’s the cold truth. Humans are happy if we are growing as individuals and if we are contributing beyond ourselves. Without growth, and without a deliberate effort to help others, we are just slaves to cultural expectations, ensnared by the trappings of money and power and status and perceived success.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“Adding value to someone else’s life is one of the most important things you can do with your life, and it has nothing to do with money.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“Happiness comes from within, from inside yourself, from living a meaningful life.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“Unless you contribute beyond yourself, your life will feel perpetually self-serving. It’s okay to operate in your own self-interest, but doing so exclusively creates an empty existence. A life without contribution is a life without meaning. The truth is that giving is living. We only feel truly alive when we are growing as individuals and contributing beyond ourselves. That’s what a real life is all about.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, you will end up feeling like a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”  —David Foster Wallace, This Is Water”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Simplicity: Essays

“Addition by subtraction.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“The point is that minimalism is a tool to help you achieve freedom. Freedom from fear, freedom from worry, freedom from overwhelm, freedom from guilt, freedom from depression, freedom from enslavement. Freedom. Real freedom.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus

“Go without. This option is almost taboo in our culture. It seems radical to many people. Why would I go without when I could just buy a new one? Often this option is the best option, though. When we go without, it forces us to question our stuff, it forces us to discover whether or not we need it—and sometimes we discover life without it is actually better than before.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“We’re taught to work foolishly hard for a non-living entity, donating our most precious commodity—our time—for a paycheck.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

“Five Values that allow us to live a meaningful life: 1. Health 2. Relationships 3. Passions 4. Growth 5. Contribution”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“Minimalism is a tool we use to live a meaningful life. There are no rules. Rather, minimalism is simply about stripping away the unnecessary things in your life so you can focus on what’s important”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“Success = Happiness + Constant Improvement”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“People will judge. Let them. Judgment is but a mirror reflecting the insecurities of the person who’s doing the judging.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“This life is short, but it contains everything. There is an inherent beauty in simplicity. Choose your path wisely; often the simple route is the most beautiful path to follow.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, Simplicity: Essays

“It’s liberating to not have a TV. Television sucks so much life out of our lives. It takes our money, our time, our attention, our awareness, our freedom, our relationships, and our creativity. And in return it gives us a little entertainment, it pacifies us for the moment. For many of us it’s our drug of choice.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

“We only have a finite amount of time on this earth. It can be spent accumulating monetary wealth, or it can be spent in a meaningful way—the latter of which doesn’t necessarily preclude someone from the former, but the relentless pursuit of riches doesn’t lead to a meaningful life.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“For me, minimalism has never been about deprivation. Rather, minimalism is about getting rid of life’s excess in favor of the essential.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, A Day in the Life of a Minimalist

“Ultimately, minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can focus on life’s most important things—which actually aren’t things at all.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

“Life is too short to do shit you dislike.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists