To live content with small means,

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are." -Marjorie Hinckley

"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have." -Doris Mortman

"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." --Laozi

"The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song." -J.R.R. Tolkien

"People always think that happiness is a faraway thing... something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains - a cup of strong hot coffee [tea]... for contentment; a book to read when you're alone... Those things make happiness." - Betty Smith

to seek elegance rather than luxury,

I have been pondering this phrase, wondering what pictures to put with it, what other great quotes I might find to express this same sentiment. I have come up with nothing that seems right to me.

I see luxury in red embroidered or paisley velvet with heavy beading and bullion fringe, and elegance in crisp white linen. But each person defines these two ideas, these two words differently.

To me it seems a luxury not to care that you have dropped the spare change out of your purse, to know and have a policy of never stooping to pick up loose change. It seems a luxury to not care that herbs you use every day cost less in bulk. It seems a luxury to swipe a card and pay for a meal you hadn't planned on eating at a restaurant I wouldn't normally afford. It seems a luxury to buy a new dress and new shoes for an event you aren't sure you'll attend.

But these luxuries are more than just things I can't afford, they are things I wouldn't afford even if I could afford them. Somehow my definition of luxuries has gotten tied up with an idea of poor stewardship, with an idea of a lack of respect for the value of a dollar in working-man terms, with carelessness and attitudes of entitlement. Luxuries are things one should do without, just on the sheer principle of it.

So how do I define elegance? In simple terms, in the classics, the enduring, the unchanging, honest, clean, refined by the passage of time and set apart by the quality of workmanship. Not necessarily inexpensive -- elegance might be affordable or it might require deep pockets -- but whatever the cost, elegance is solidly worth its price tag.

How do you define elegance?

and refinement rather than fashion;

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." -- Oscar Wilde

to be worthy, not respectable;

CeCe Winans: Worthy


...we are counted as worthy, so let's be worthy...

and wealthy, not rich;

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring."
— Oscar Wilde

to study hard,

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but ... I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts." -- Elizabeth Gilbert

think quietly,

contemplate