quotes, passages and quotations about contentment

One is content if one can find
happiness in simple pleasures.

Thomas Malloy

The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind, and they who have so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but their own disposition, will waste their lives in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief they propose to remove. Samuel Johnson Discontentment makes rich people poor while contentment makes poor people rich. unattributed

To know when you have enough is to be rich. Lao-tzu Those who want much, are always much in need. Horace

Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire; not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting people's desires. Generally those who boast most of contentment have least of it. Their very boasting shows they want something and basely beg it, namely commendation. Thomas Fuller

Neither circumstances nor surroundings can bring contentment. Only by fitting ourselves to meet conditions as they are, calmly and courageously, may we hope to reconcile ourselves to our position and conditions of life. Fred van Amburgh

Even though you have ten thousand fields,
you can eat no more than one measure of rice a day.
Even though your dwelling contains a hundred rooms,
you can use but eight feet of space a night.

Chinese proverb

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Contentment gives a crown,
where fortune hath denied it.

John Ford

A contented mind is the greatest blessing
a person can enjoy in this world.

Joseph Addison

Contentment has the ability to squeeze
out of every situation all the good there is to get.

Shantidasa

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves,
it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

Francois La Rochefoucauld

Contentment comes as the infallible result of great acceptances,
great humilities--of not trying to make ourselves this or that,
but of surrendering ourselves to the fullness of
life--of letting life flow through us.

David Grayson

The key to contentment is to consider. Consider who you are and be satisfied
with that. Consider what you have and be satisfied with that. Consider
what God’s doing and be satisfied with that. You will be amazed at how
much more comfortable you’ll feel with yourself. Finally, consider this:
If contentment cannot be found within yourself, you’ll never find it.

Luci Swindoll

Truth is like the stars; it does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night.
Truth is like all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its desirability except
to those who first feel the influence of falsehood. Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us
to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

Khalil Gibran

There are nine requisites for contented living: health enough to make work
a pleasure; wealth enough to support your needs; strength to battle with
difficulties and overcome them; grace enough to confess your sins and
forsake them; patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
charity enough to see some good in your neighbor; love enough to move
you to be useful and helpful to others; faith enough to make real the
things of God; hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The secret of contentment
is the realization that
life is a gift, not a right.

unattributed

Contentment

"Man wants but little here below."

LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,
(A very plain brown stone will do,)
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me;
Three courses are as good as ten;--
If Nature can subsist on three,
Thank Heaven for three. Amen!
I always thought cold victual nice;--
My choice would be vanilla-ice.

I care not much for gold or land;--
Give me a mortgage here and there,--
Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
Or trifling railroad share,--
I only ask that Fortune send
A little more than I shall spend.

Honors are silly toys, I know,
And titles are but empty names;
I would, perhaps, be Plenipo,--
But only near St. James;
I'm very sure I should not care
To fill our Gubernator's chair.

Jewels are baubles; 't is a sin
To care for such unfruitful things;--
One good-sized diamond in a pin,--
Some, not so large, in rings,--
A ruby, and a pearl, or so,
Will do for me;--I laugh at show.

My dame should dress in cheap attire;
(Good, heavy silks are never dear;) -
I own perhaps I might desire
Some shawls of true Cashmere,--
Some marrowy crapes of China silk,
Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.

I would not have the horse I drive
So fast that folks must stop and stare;
An easy gait--two forty-five--
Suits me; I do not care;--
Perhaps, for just a single spurt,
Some seconds less would do no hurt.

Of pictures, I should like to own
Titians aud Raphaels three or four,--
I love so much their style and tone,
One Turner, and no more,
(A landscape,--foreground golden dirt,--
The sunshine painted with a squirt.)

Of books but few,--some fifty score
For daily use, and bound for wear;
The rest upon an upper floor;--
Some little luxury there
Of red morocco's gilded gleam
And vellum rich as country cream.

Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these,
Which others often show for pride,
I value for their power to please,
And selfish churls deride;--
One Stradivarius, I confess,
Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess.

Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn,
Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;--
Shall not carved tables serve my turn,
But all must be of buhl?
Give grasping pomp its double share,--
I ask but one recumbent chair.

Thus humble let me live and die,
Nor long for Midas' golden touch;
If Heaven more generous gifts deny,
I shall not miss them much,--
Too grateful for the blessing lent
Of simple tastes and mind content!

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The art of contentment is the recognition that the most satisfying and the
most dependably refreshing experiences of life lie not in great things but
in little. The rarity of happiness among those who achieved much is evidence
that achievement is not in itself the assurance of a happy life. The great,
like the humble, may have to find their satisfaction in the same plain things.

Edgar A. Collard

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.

Doug Larsen

A harvest of peace grows from seeds of contentment.

Kashmiri Proverb

With the "civilized" person contentment is a myth. From the cradle
to the grave they are forever longing and striving after something
better, an indefinable something, some new object yet unattained.

William Matthews

Articles and book excerpts on contentment:

Creating "White Space" in Your Life Kathy Paauw

Those who know that enough is enough will always have enough.

Lao Tzu

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large
enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.

Charles Caleb Colton

True happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment,
which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love
and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed.

The Dalai Lama