Henry Flynt Quotes

When I was a student in the '60s, I dreamt of making a house 7 feet by 7 feet, as a dream of freedom, of self-moderation.

I've lived a slower and less expensive life going off the grid, and I'm happier because of it.

I feel that my environment reflects my belief in the grace and art and elegance of living simply.

I'd like to live off-grid.

If Home Depot doesn't have it, Mark Bradford doesn't need it.

We have allowed ourselves to be defined by our consumption instead of by our ability to move beyond it.

My mother had very humble beginnings - to put it mildly. Her dad built their home out of timber that he cut down on their land. No heat, no air-conditioning - 'no foolishness,' as he would call it.

Unless you're living on the street and surviving on a diet of discarded turkey drumsticks, there's no point in being gloomy. We've spent too long trying to cheer ourselves up by spending money on brightly coloured things we don't really need. We've stopped using our imaginations.

I'm not a girl who's into home comforts and luxury.

I live my life very Amish-like. Other than video games, I don't think I have a reason for electronics. It's a life that I've always loved.

People are being overwhelmed with social issues, political problems and economic problems - and this notion of giving everything up and going to live off-grid and to have a simpler way of life is quite attractive.

We are in a very strange way going back to the mentality of the time when Americans went in covered wagons. I imagine they had a piece of cloth, and the piece of furniture they carried with them meant to be a good piece of wood, and sturdy. We're going back to that.

I think everything everything about my lifestyle is fairly alternative. I gather my own spring water from mountains every month. I go to a farm to get my food. I make everything from my own toothpaste to my own body lotions and face oils. I could go on for hours. I make my own medicines; I don’t get those from doctors. I make my own cheese and forage wild foods and identify wild plants. It’s an entire lifestyle. It’s appealing to my soul.

I often think I am a better person because I lived for many years of my life with a flashlight. I have developed skills I did not think were possible - bathing with a cup of water by candlelight, for instance, and writing a story with a headlamp on.

I was born in 1946, so I was born on the tail end of when everything was deemed important. You made things to last. If you came from a poor family, there was only one can opener.

I'm a practitioner of elegant frugality. I don't feel comfortable telling other people what to do, so I just try and lead by example.

It would be nice to live off the land and fix cars.

I was brought up to reuse things.

I grew up off the grid in Vernon, and I saw my parents work hard every day, as teachers but also while farming and building a log home. So from a young age I knew the value of hard work.

To grow up under really simple circumstances, and to understand that certain things were ornamental... that made an impression on me as a child and is something I use.

Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.

My material life is simple.

All of our technology is completely unnecessary to a happy life.

I haven't lived in Sweden since I was a teenager. We lived in southern Sweden, about two hours north of Copenhagen, where my family's home base has been since 1970. Our parents bought a schoolhouse in preparation for self-sufficient living. They wanted to create a place to do all the things they believed in.

Go far - too far you cannot, still the farther. The more experience finds you: and go sparing. One meal a week will serve you, and one suit, through all your travels; for you'll find it certain.