A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can
afford to let alone (Thoreau)

Voluntary simplicity responds to many of the critical problems of our era: environmental degradation, bureaucratic complexity, world hunger, a loss of social purpose and social cohesion, a dehumanizing economy, and many more. This way of life represents a creative and comprehensive response to a host of critical problems customarily considered to be separate. By coping simultaneously with scores of interrelated problems, this way of life provides a multifaceted approach that could not be achieved by addressing these problems on a one-by-one basis….

To live more voluntarily means to encounter life more consciously. To live more simply is to encounter life more directly.
We consciously trivialize the human experiment with shallow pursuits of money and social status that mask rather than celebrate the magnificence of the human being. All the while a miracle of creation surrounds us and intimately infuses every particle of our existence. (From the book Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin (1981), Pages 124 and 139)