Charles Lamb Quotes

I really don't need luxury.

It is only luxury and avarice that make poverty grievous to us; for it is a very small matter that does our business, and when we have provided against cold, hunger, and thirst, all the rest is but vanity and excess.

It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

When I look around, I begin to understand what Socrates meant when he said, 'How much there is in the world I do not want.'

I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

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

He has the most who is most content with the least.

The older I get, the less I need. I wear the same jean shorts for the whole week. I'm not running to the store to get the latest bag.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

I have no use for eight houses, 88 cars and 500 suits. I can't eat but one steak at a time. I don't want but one woman. It's silly to have as one's sole object in life just making money, accumulating wealth.

Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also.

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.

Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.

Let him who has enough ask for nothing more.

When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."

Diogenes found more rest in his tub than Alexander on his throne.

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

He is not poor that hath not much, but he that craves much.

Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men?

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

I'm barely at home enough to enjoy the simple lifestyle that I want to live.

Less is a bore.

I am totally unattached to material items.

The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more.