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Stanford University

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by Blake Masters - September 18, 2003

"Simplify, simplify, simplify," wrote Henry David Thoreau. If you were to follow Thoreau's advice and give up most of your possessions, which ones would you keep, and why?

If I were to follow Henry David Thoreau's advice to simplify my life and eliminate any unnecessary possessions, I would find myself with perhaps half a dozen of the most important left. It is said that one can tell a lot about a person by his most prized possessions. Knowing this, I made a good effort to think of what objects are really necessary…

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