Echoes

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.

Faith is the best wealth for a man in this world. Righteousness when well practised brings happiness. Truth is the sweetest of flavours. They say the life of one living by wisdom is the best.

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

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

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

If you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply; and living simply is voluntary poverty.

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

We place the happy life in the security of the mind and in freedom from all obligations.

That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and the true reward of its possessor. That cannot be lost; that never deserts us, but when life leaves us. As to property and external riches, hold them with trembling; they often leave their possessor in contempt, and mocked at for having lost them.

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

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

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that's all even the gods can ask of you.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

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.