Editing Simple living (section)

===Secular and political===
[[Epicureanism]], based on the teachings of the [[Athens]]-based [[philosopher]] [[Epicurus]], flourished from about {{BCE|the fourth century}} to {{CE|the third century}}. Epicureanism held that the paradigm of happiness was the untroubled life, which was made possible by carefully considered choices. Epicurus pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasures of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided.<ref>{{cite web|last=Smith|first=M.F.|year=2001|url=http://www.epicurus.info/etexts/introlucretius.html#III|url-status=dead|title=Introduction to Lucretius: On the Nature of Things|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060301142624/http://www.epicurus.info/etexts/introlucretius.html|website=Epicurus.info|archive-date=2006-03-01}}</ref>

[[File:Thoreau's cabin inside.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstruction of [[Henry David Thoreau]]'s cabin on the shores of [[Walden Pond]]]]
[[Henry David Thoreau]], an American [[natural history|naturalist]] and author, made the classic [[Secularity|secular]] advocacy of a life of simple and [[sustainable living]] in his book ''[[Walden]]'' (1854). Thoreau conducted a two-year experiment living a plain and simple life on the shores of [[Walden Pond]]. He concluded: "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."<ref>{{cite book|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|title=Walden|chapter=Where I Lived, and What I Lived For|chapter-url=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry-david-thoreau/walden/text/where-i-lived-and-what-i-lived-for|year=1854}}</ref>

In Victorian Britain, [[Henry Stephens Salt]], an admirer of Thoreau, popularised the idea of "Simplification, the saner method of living".<ref name=Gould>{{cite book|first=Peter C.|last=Gould|title=Early Green Politics}}</ref>{{rp|22}} Other British advocates of the simple life included [[Edward Carpenter]], [[William Morris]], and the members of the "[[Fellowship of the New Life]]".{{r|Gould|pages=27–28}} Carpenter popularised the phrase the "Simple Life" in his essay ''Simplification of Life'' in his ''England's Ideal'' (1887).<ref>{{cite book|last=Delany|first=Paul|year=1987|title=The Neo-pagans: Rupert Brooke and the ordeal of youth|url=https://archive.org/details/neopagansrupertb00dela|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]]|isbn=978-0029082805|page=10}}</ref>

[[Charles Robert Ashbee|C.R. Ashbee]] and his followers also practised some of these ideas, thus linking simplicity with the [[Arts and Crafts movement]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Fiona|last=Maccarthy|title=The Simple Life: C.R. Ashbee in the Cotswolds|location=London|year=1981}}</ref> British novelist [[John Cowper Powys]] advocated the simple life in his 1933 book ''A Philosophy of Solitude''.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|last=Powys|first=John Cowper|title=A Philosophy of Solitude|location=London|year=1933}}
|2=See also {{cite book|author-link=David Goodway|first=David|last=Goodway|title=[[Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow]]|location=Liverpool|year=2006|pages=48–49, 174|postscript=, for Goodway's comparison of Powys' ideas of the Simple Life to Carpenter's.}} }}</ref> [[John Middleton Murry]] and [[Max Plowman]] practised a simple lifestyle at their Adelphi Centre in Essex in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardy|first=Dennis|title=Utopian England: Community Experiments 1900–1945|page=42}} Hardy's book details other simple living movements in the U.K. in this period.</ref>
Irish poet [[Patrick Kavanagh]] championed a "right simplicity" philosophy based on [[Agrarianism|ruralism]] in some of his work.<ref>{{cite news|first=Alan|last=O'Riordan|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/kavanagh-s-lessons-for-simple-living-1.776937|title=Kavanagh's Lessons for Simple Living|publisher=Irish Times|date=November 23, 2009}}</ref>

[[George Lorenzo Noyes]], a [[Natural history|naturalist]], [[Mineralogy|mineralogist]], [[Postdevelopment theory|development critic]], writer, and artist, is known as the Thoreau of Maine. He lived a wilderness lifestyle, advocating through his creative work a simple life and reverence for nature. During the 1920s and 1930s, the [[Southern Agrarians|Vanderbilt Agrarians]] of the [[Southern United States]] advocated a lifestyle and culture centered upon traditional and sustainable [[agrarianism|agrarian values]] as opposed to the progressive urban [[Industrial Revolution|industrialism]] which dominated [[Western culture|the Western world]] at that time.

[[File:Veblen - Theory of the leisure class, 1924 - 5854536.tif|thumb|right|upright|''[[The Theory of the Leisure Class]]'', 1924]]
The Norwegian-American economist and sociologist [[Thorstein Veblen]] warned against the [[conspicuous consumption]] of the [[Economic materialism|materialistic]] society in his ''[[The Theory of the Leisure Class]]'' (1899); [[Richard Gregg (social philosopher)|Richard Gregg]] coined the term "voluntary simplicity" in ''The Value of Voluntary Simplicity'' (1936). From the 1920s, a number of modern authors articulated both the theory and practice of living simply, among them [[Gandhism|Gandhian]] Richard Gregg, economists [[Ralph Borsodi]] and [[Scott Nearing]], anthropologist-poet [[Gary Snyder]], and [[utopia]]n fiction writer [[Ernest Callenbach]]. Economist [[E. F. Schumacher]] argued against the notion that "bigger is better" in ''[[Small Is Beautiful]]'' (1973); and [[Duane Elgin]] continued the promotion of the simple life in ''Voluntary Simplicity'' (1981).

The Australian academic [[Ted Trainer]] practices and writes about simplicity, and established The Simplicity Institute<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://simplicityinstitute.org/ted-trainer|title=Ted Trainer|website=Simplicity Institute}}</ref> at Pigface Point, some {{convert|20|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the [[University of New South Wales]] to which it is attached.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unsw.edu.au/arts-design-architecture|title=Arts, Design & Architecture - UNSW Sydney|website=UNSW Sites}}</ref> A secular set of nine values was developed with the ''Ethify Yourself'' project in [[Austria]], having a simplified life style in mind. In the [[United States]] voluntary simplicity started to garner more public exposure through a movement in the late 1990s around a popular "simplicity" book, ''The Simple Living Guide'' by Janet Luhrs.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Janet|last=Luhrs|title=The Simple Living Guide|publisher=Harmony|year=1997|isbn=978-0553067965}}</ref>