Echoes

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

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

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

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.

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

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.

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

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

Comparison is the thief of joy.

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

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.

Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.

I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next 1000 years, & exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it — for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow — I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment. Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

In ease of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be oneself.