My family started homesteading when we moved to our 2.5 acre farmhouse a few years ago. Here are some of my favorite homesteading quotes that remind me the value of this way of living.
What Is Homesteading?
Homesteading is a lifestyle focused on self-sufficiency, sustainability, and simple living. It often involves practices like growing your own food, raising animals, preserving food, and making items by hand.
Homesteading can take place in rural, suburban, or even urban settings. It focuses on food production, sustainable practices, handcrafting, minimalist, resourcefulness, community, sharing, and DIY.
Why Homesteading Matters?
Homesteading encourages people to embrace the simple things in life. It teaches resilience, planning, and care. It teaches people to have a deep appreciation for their food and clothing. Additionally, it can bring people and communities together.
HOMESTEADING QUOTES
Here are some of my favorite homesteading quotes! I like to read these quotes when homesteading gets hard to remember why we have chosen this lifestyle!
Read all of them below or click on the links below to just read the quotes in individual categories.
Here are some of my favorite quotes about homesteading!
GARDENING
“Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years.” – Unknown
“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.” – Janet Kilburn Phillips
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn
“Green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart.” – Russell Page
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.” – Luther Burbank
“Sow the seeds of self-sufficiency and watch your life bloom.” – Unknown
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” – Claude Monet
“A garden is a grand teach. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Even the tiniest of flowers can have the toughest roots.” – Shannon Mullen
“I am happy out here. Messy hair, dirty feet & wild water on my skin. Out here with the wild things; this is where I belong.” – Brooke Hampton
“I do some of my best thinking while pulling weeds.” – Martha Smith
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn
“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” – Rudyard Kipling
“There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.” – Alfred Austin
“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin
COOKING
“No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing” – Julia Child
“Food waste isn’t considered a problem because, for the most part, it isn’t considered at all. It’s easy to ignore because it’s both common and customary. I have yet to meet someone who is pro-food waste, but many aren’t convinced that it’s important.” – Jonathan Bloom
“I’m not a chef. But I’m passionate about food – the tradition of it, cooking it, and sharing it.” – Zac Posem
“Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.” – Craig Claiborne
“Baking is how you start kids at cooking in the kitchen.” – Sandra Lee
COMMUNITY HOMESTEADING QUOTES
“Strong communities are built around local, real food. Food we trust to nourish our bodies, the farmer and planet.” – Kimbal Musk
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” – Greek proverb
“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
HOMEMAKING
“Homesteading: The art of turning houses into homes and gardens into sanctuaries.” – Unknown
“Some things just have to be done + they are challenging and repetitive. It doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong- it’s just the nature of some parts of homemaking! It can be mundane at times, but I love finding beauty in the mundane and reminding myself that it’s important work.” – Lisa Bass
“Sewing is not a hobby; it’s a way of life.” – Unknown
“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.” – Unknown
“Homemaking is not about perfection; it’s about creating a space where your family feels loved and safe.” – Unknown
“Homemaking is the art of turning a house into a home.” – Unknown
“The heart of the home beats in the rhythm of its homemaker.” – Unknown
“I enjoy doing housework, ironing, washing, cooking, dishwashing. Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it. You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read Shakespeare.” – Tasha Tudor
EDUCATION
“To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.” – Mary Davis
“The best education does not happen at a desk, but rather engaged in everyday living – hands on exploring , in active relationship with life.” -Vince Gowmon
“Let them once get in touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” – Charlotte Mason
“The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.” – Maria Montessori
“An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing.” – Charlotte Mason
“We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.” – Charlotte Mason
“Encouraging a child to go outside in all weather builds resilience , but more importantly it saves them from spending their life merely tolerating the ‘bad’ days in favor of a handful of ‘good’ ones- a life of endless expectations and conditions where happiness hinges on sunshine.” – Nicolette Sowder
“Teaching kids how to feed themselves and how to live in a community responsibly is the center of an education.” – Alice Waters
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Teach me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Don’t just tell your children about the world, show them.” – Penny Whitehouse
SLOW LIVING HOMESTEADING QUOTES
“The plants and the earth are resting. Maybe we should too. The long days will be here soon enough.” – Rebecca Raiden
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” – Simon Sinek
“There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” – Eddie Cantor.
“Slow living isn’t about determining how little we can live with – it’s about working out what we simply can’t live without.” – Unknown
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” – Unknown
CARING
“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.” – Andy Warhol
“Sustainability is about ecology, economy, and equity.” – Ralph Bicknese
“The future of food depends on how well we take care of the land and its resources.” – Unknown
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world, starting with the way we grow our food.” – Unknown
“Sustainable agriculture is a way of farming that enhances the health and biodiversity of the land while feeding the people.” – Unknown
“We cannot afford to let the quality of our land and water continue to decline. We must choose sustainable agriculture now.” – Unknown
“Sustainability in farming isn’t just a choice; it’s a responsibility.” – Unknown
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
SCRIPTURE
“Aspire to live a quiet life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:11
“Those who plant a garden or a field and work hard to gather it and tend it, are wise. But those who instead sleep and waste their time have caused shame.” – Proverbs 10:5
“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” – Jeremiah 29:5
“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”- Isaiah 61:11
“He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” – Psalm 104:14
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” – Genesis 8:22
“There is a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season. There is a time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pull up plants. There is a time to kill and a time to heal.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” – Genesis 2:15
ANIMALS
“Chickens turn scraps into breakfast and chaos into joy.” – Unknown
“Chickens may not solve all your problems, but they’ll certainly make you smile while you figure them out.” – Unknown
“A farm is more than land and animals; it is a place where the earth and the soul are nourished.” – Unknown
URBAN HOMESTEADING QUOTES
“Sustainability isn’t a place; it’s a mindset, even in the middle of the city.” – Unknown
“Urban homesteading is about cultivating self-reliance in the heart of the city.” – Unknown
“Grow where you are planted, even if it’s in the middle of the city.” – Unknown
“Small spaces, big dreams: the urban homesteader’s way.” – Unknown
“You don’t need acres of land to live sustainably; a balcony or backyard will do.” – Unknown
“Urban homesteading turns concrete jungles into green oases.” – Unknown
“Self-sufficiency starts with a single potted plant on a city windowsill.” – Unknown
“Living off the land isn’t about where you live; it’s about how you live.” – Unknown
“In the heart of the city, we can rediscover the rhythms of nature.” – Unknown
“Urban homesteading: a return to roots in the modern world.” – Unknown
“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” – Abraham Lincoln
SIMPLICITY HOMESTEADING QUOTES
“Homesteading is not a retreat from the world; it is a return to the essentials.” – Unknown
“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—but how efficiently we can put first things first.” – Victoria Moran
“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet simple things in life that are the real ones after all.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder
“A garden that fills the pantry for the year, sourdough cooling on the counter, music drifting from the kitchen, the scent of line-dried sheets, hot coffee on the porch during a rainstorm, and laughter around the dinner table. It’s the little things that we should crave the most.” – The Wooded White Cottage
“We’ve been oversold the value of more and undersold the value of less.” – Greg McKeown
“I am not drawn to luxury. I love the simple things, like looking out my window and seeing chickens on a fence post, wildflowers, and sunrises. Hearing nature calling me to go out and absorb the beauty around me.” – Unknown
“In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Live gently upon this earth” – Unknown
“Homesteading is about creating a life that you don’t need a vacation from.” – Unknown
FRUGALITY
“Growing your own food is like printing your own money!” – Ron Finley
“I make myself rich by making my wants few.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
“Choose quality over quantity; your life deserves the best, not just the most.” – Joshua Becker
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” – New England Proverb
“Homesteading, at its core, is counter-cultural from our consumerist-driven culture. This is a lifestyle that glorifies salvaging and reclaiming, repairing rather than buying new, and trading and bartering when money is tight.” – Unknown
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’t need a perfectly aesthetic kitchen or a collection of linen prairie dresses to reap major benefits from a homestead life.” – @twopawsfarmhouse
“When life gives you scraps, make a quilt.” – Unknown
FARMING
“Sustainable farming is about balancing the needs of the earth with the needs of the people who live on it.” – Unknown
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” – Will Rogers
“A good farmer is a craftsman who works with nature, not against it.” – Unknown
“Without farmers, we wouldn’t have food, and without food, we wouldn’t have life.” – Unknown
“When you improve the soil, you improve the planet.” – Unknown
“Farming is not just about growing crops, it’s about growing healthy communities.” – Unknown
Homesteading Resources
The New Homesteader’s Handbook
A beginner’s guide to basic homestead skills, most of which can be done within the city!
Garden Planner
A step-by-step planner that will walk you through how to start a successful garden.
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