Quotes About Contentment

Indeed, the more you have of such things the poorer you are.

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your intention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.

Os únicos seres felizes no mundo são os que gozam livremente de um vasto horizonte

my greatest skill has been to want but little

I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.

Let us not, my friends, be wheedled and cheated into good behavior to earn the salt of our eternal porridge, whoever they are that attempt it. Let us wait a little, and not purchase any clearing here, trusting that richer bottoms will soon be put up. It is but thin soil where we stand; I have felt my roots in a richer ere than this.

Nor wars did men molest, When only beechen bowls were in request.

Nor is it every apple I desire,      Nor that which pleases every palate best; 'T is not the lasting Deuxan I require,      Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request, Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife, Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife: No, no! bring me an apple from the tree of life.

Para resumir, estou convencido, por e fé e experiência, que a automanutenção neste mundo não é um sofrimento mas um passatempo, se a pessoa viver de modo simples e sábio; tanto que as ocupações dos povos mais simples são os esportes dos mais sofisticados. Não é necessário que um homem ganhe a vida com o suor de seu rosto, a não ser que ele sue muito mais que eu

The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.

Ich für meinen Teil war nie besonders wählerisch; wenn es nötig wäre, könnte ich eine gebratene Ratte mit Appetit verzehren. Ich bin froh, immer Wasser getrunken zu haben, und das aus dem gleichen Grund, aus dem ich den natürlichen Himmel dem eines Opiumrauchers vorziehe.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite--only a sense of existence.

Por mais mesquinha que seja sua vida, aceite-a e viva-a; não se esquive a ela nem a trate com termos duros. Ela não é tão ruim quanto você

Every man looks at his woodpile with a kind of affection.

Não vejo porque um espírito sereno não possa viver com o mesmo contentamento e com pensamentos alegres num asilo ou um palácio

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.

I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not;—but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them.

How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I

A penny to your thoughts, or a thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers live of their stores not best all the forenoon, but all of the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so lots of them—as though the legs had been made to take a seat upon, and now not to face or walk upon—I suppose that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.

I'd rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion

Prefiero caminar entre los bosques a ser rey de alguna nación