Quotes About Contentment

The Buddhist version of poverty is a situation where you have nothing to contribute.

Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside. -Gabe Singleton remembering his counselor's first advice-

I can't make myself be happy but I can always make myself not be miserable. - Dr. Lou Welcome

No, if you squinted a little bit, maybe what seemed like wasted time was, in fact, true happiness.

That's the thing about needs. Sometimes when you get them met, you don't need them anymore.

There was no hastiness or anger in his response. He did not take the disobedience personally. He had trained many horses and mules and knew the value of patient perseverance. In the end, the twelve-month-old submitted his will to his father, sat as he was placed, and became content—even cheerful. He was now ready to quietly sit through three hours of the most boring church service a sleeping patriarch ever attended.

It sounds cliche, but success is your friends, your family, what you do, and if you're happy when you wake up.

People were always reaching for what they didn't have—fame or wealth, youth or love, some final victory or vengeance. They chased after the prizes that would sum up their lives, seeking to complete themselves. It was so easy to get caught up in the chase.

But the ledger had two sides. It was a relief not to worry any longer about puffing up his chest for the benefit of others. He found himself treasuring small glimpses of life that as a younger man he might have galloped right past. And there were still plenty of ridgelines to keep him wondering.

the higher the expectations about unselected alternatives, the lower the level of satisfaction with the chosen good.

How did the Barnharts decide how much was enough? Our principle is that the Army cook shouldn't eat a whole lot better than the troops. Those of us who're in a position to generate wealth aren't entitled to a different lifestyle than the rest of the body, the rest of the troops. We may need different tools, just like that cook, but our lives shouldn't be so different.

At the end of this lifetime, all the "stuff" you accrue is not going to make you happy. At the end of your life, all you're going to have is who you've become as an individual, and that is what matters the most. What are you leaving behind for the next generation to build upon? Did you set up your family? Did you accomplish everything you wanted during your journey? And did it make you happy? But

Der ideale Ort ist immer da, wo ich gerade bin. Ich spüre kein mich aufzehrendes Verlangen, Indien zu bereisen. Auch in die Mongolei gehe ich nicht, da wird einem nur das Pferd gestohlen.

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.

Most of us live in a state of perpetual "could be better." We're so used to having control over every little parameter of our lives that we cannot focus on what's going right, only on what's going wrong. That's the viewpoint we always seem to be coming from, and it means that we are perpetually unsatisfied, unhappy, disappointed, and ungrateful.

Expect nothing and appreciate the value of everything; this is the true lesson of the Rule of Acceptance.

I've been there and done all that, sold millions of records, and that doesn't bring you peace.

true blessings come not from stuff or from satisfying the self; they come from submitting one's self to God.

A happy wife is a happy life," he said, echoing a popular rich-man truism.

I thought that nothing enormously bad or good had happened to me during my life. All the normal things had occurred. I had lived a completely unremarkable life. I wanted only my home, and the love and safety of those around me, nothing else. I knew there was no particular reason why I was put on this earth, but here I was and I was glad to be here, awed by the beauty of it. It was a perfect moment. (p.99)

When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep. Nay, and when I walk alone in a beautiful Orchard, if my Thoughts are some part of the Time taken up with strange Occurrences, I some part of the Time call them back again to my Walk, or to the Orchard, to the Sweetness of the Solitude, and to my self.

Riches, like glory or heath, have no more beauty or pleasure than their possessor is pleased to lend them.

The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance.

The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable.