Echoes

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.

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

Take the happiest man, the one most envied by the world, and in nine cases out of ten his inmost consciousness is one of failure. Either his ideals in the line of his achievements are pitched far higher than the achievements themselves, or else he has secret ideals of which the world knows nothing, and in regard to which he inwardly knows himself to be found wanting.

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.

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

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

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

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

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

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

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.

For in all adversity of fortune, the most unfortunate kind of misfortune is to have been happy.

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.

You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.

Boredom is the root of all evil — the despairing refusal to be oneself.