Category: AVARICE & ALMSGIVING & MINIMALISM

  • In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating.

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown.

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case, tell surely of any company of civilized men which belonged to the most respected class?

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • The pleasure however which is produced through luxury, does not even approach to that which is experienced by him who lives with frugality. For such a one has great pleasure in thinking how little he requires.

    Porphyry, On Abstinence From Animal Food, Book 1

  • If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

    —Epicurus

  • The almsgiver is a harbor for those in necessity: a harbor receives all who have encountered shipwreck, and frees them from danger; whether they are bad or good or whatever they are who are in danger, it escorts them into its own shelter. So you likewise, when you see on earth the man who has encountered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an account of his life, but free him from his misfortune. God has excused you from all officiousness and meddlesomeness… A judge is one thing, an almsgiver is another.

    On Wealth and Poverty
    St. John Chrysostom

  • When, therefore, you see any one longing for many things, esteem him of all men the poorest, even though he possess all manner of wealth; again, when you see one who does not wish for many things, judge him to be of all men most affluent, even if he possess nothing. For by the condition of our mind, not by the quantity of our material wealth, should it be our custom to distinguish between poverty and affluence.

    On Wealth and Poverty
    St. John Chrysostom

  • For he who cannot restrain his desires, even if he should be surrounded by every kind of possessions, how can he ever be rich? Those, indeed, who are satisfied with their own property, enjoying what they have, and not casting a covetous eye on the substance of others, even if they be, as to means, of all men the most limited, ought to be regarded as the most affluent. For he who does not desire other people’s possessions, but is willing to be satisfied with his own, is the wealthiest of all.

    On Wealth and Poverty
    St. John Chrysostom