Echoes

It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.

He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. (15)

He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little.

In pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away the unessential.

If you wish to make Pythocles wealthy, don't give him more money; rather, reduce his desires.

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Frugality is founded on the principle that all riches have limits.

With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.

Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.

I eat only what is enough to sustain my life. My food is bread, soup, an egg, and a little meat. And the amount I eat is no more than my body can easily digest.

He is richest who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

We always strive for what is forbidden, and desire what is denied.

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

The food which a temperate man leaves upon his plate is more beneficial than that which a glutton eats.

The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die,… They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight. ... Death steps in in the end and stops him before he has grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes him. At first sight there is something astonishing in this spectacle of so many lucky men restless in the midst of abundance. But it is a spectacle as old as the world; all that is new is to see a whole people performing in it.

Those who are slaves to their appetites cannot preserve their reason, their memory, or their senses in their full vigour; for a full belly does not produce a fine mind.

We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, Life.