The Quest of the Simple Life  
W. J. Dawson  

Summary

A book written at the beginning of the 1900s from a London finance professional who moved to the countryside in search of a simpler life

Rating: 3/5

Notes

The true zest of all pleasures lies in contrast

For rich men, it is the pursuit of wealth rather than the wealth itself that is their pleasure

The anxieties of getting money only begets the more torturing anxiety of how to keep it

Is it worth it to destroy the power of living in attaining the means to live?

The man who can buy anything he wants values nothing that he buys

Satisfaction is the death of progress

Work that is not genuinely loved cannot be done well

Women of the best kind have much more garnish in finance compared to men

The simplest pleasures are the most enduring, the commonest delights are the most invigorating and happiness that is most easily available is the best

Nature respects no man and laughs in the face of an egotist

The first business of life is not to get good but to do good

More lives have been spoiled by competence than poverty

Progress is not a collective movement but the movement of great individuals who drag the race after them

Society never moves forward except when it is pushed by the spirit of individual genius

All questions of doing good are secondary to the question of being good

Money plays a small part in human existence much less important than we suppose

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