Less Is More: The Art of Voluntary Poverty: An Anthology of Ancient and Modern Voices Raised in Praise of Simplicity
Author: Goldian Vandenbroeck, E. F. Schumacher
List Price: $14.95
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ISBN: 0892814314
Publisher: Inner Traditions Intl Ltd (June, 1996)
Sales Rank: 2,076,198
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
A Gem
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...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Like no other simplicity book out there...
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. vagabondsteve@yahoo.com
Rating: 4 out of 5
Sounds great, but how practical?
Socrates lead an interesting, but useless practically life and was eventually executed, moreover, we really don't know anything about him, all we know is actually Plato, Thoreau was destitute all his life and built his cabin on the land belonging to Emerson (what would he do if there wasn't be anyone ready with such a favor?) and by the way, he abandoned his cabin in two years though you'd think he spent his life in there, Plato never got to try his ideas in government (I wonder why, if he's so smart, where's his money, Aristotle, Boethius, and Machiavelli were more successful in that respect, meaning it was not principally impossible, but Stalin and Hitler tried some of Plato's methods, what does that tell us about them), Ghandi... jeez, what's left of Ghandi in the modern India? And would we know as much as his name if he had to deal not with the British, but, say, Germans or Russians? How universal is his philosophy? Or was it just a quirk of time.What's the value of a philosophy if it's impractical, regardless of how feel-good it is? That's a very important question that somehow always disturbs me when I read such well-intentioned, beatific books, at length leaving me right where I was before, but every time a bit more despairing.
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