Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Do not be eager for things above.

To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible.

There are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.

I think it's kind of nice, in this day and age of instant gratification, that you have to wait for something.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

The more you learn to live without, the more you'll have to live with.

Be satisfied with needs instead of wants.

I subscribe to the slow nickel theory. You take a little bit at a time. You always make better of what you have when you don't have best.

I think one of the biggest things is I wasn't spoiled as a kid. I got what I needed. I didn't always get what I wanted. But it's good to have what you need.

The remedy against want is to moderate your desires.

My goal has always been to slow down as slowly as possible. It's as simple as that.

Here is a guaranteed way to get more of what you want: want less.

Avoid the philosophy and excuse that yesterday's luxuries have become today's necessities. They aren't necessities unless we ourselves make them such. . . . It is essential for us to live within our means.

Happiness consists not in having much, but in wanting no more than you have.

Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough.

Benefits should be granted little by little, so that they may be better enjoyed.

He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.

I hear Socrates saying that the best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.

Live below your means but within your needs.

In order to prove a friend to one's guests, frugality must reign in one's meals; and, according to an ancient saying, one must eat to live, not live to eat.

I do like to treat myself, I just don't do it very often.

For it is better to suffer a little want than to have too much.

Don't long for the unripe grape.