Are you rich? Do not borrow. Are you poor? Do not borrow. If you are well off, you have no need of the loan; if you have nothing, you will not be able to repay it. Do not give your life over to bitter regret, lest you count the days before you took the loan as the happiest of your life.

—St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

The animals use in common the plants that grow naturally from the earth. Flocks of sheep graze together upon one and the same hillside, herds of horses feed upon the same plain, and all living creatures permit each other to satisfy their need for food. But we hoard what is common, and keep for ourselves what belongs to many others.

—St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

—Epicurus

I was aware that the best pleasures can be had without very much money-or with none at all.

The Seven Story Mountain
by Thomas Merton

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.

Walden
by Henry David Thoreau

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

Walden
by Henry David Thoreau