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

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

Comfort and luxury are usually the chief requirements of life for your ego – its top priorities tend to be accumulations, achievements, and the approval of others.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.

A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.

I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of.

To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I’ve got books I need to read.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.

I could become very rich in Guatemala but by the low method of ratifying my title, opening a clinic, and specialising in allergies. To do that would be the most horrible betrayal of the two ‚I’s‘ struggling inside me: the socialist and the traveller.

There is no doubt that some plant food, such as oatmeal, is more economical than meat, and superior to it in regard to both mechanical and mental performance. Such food, moreover, taxes our digestive organs decidedly less, and, in making us more contented and sociable, produces an amount of good difficult to estimate.

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.

You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

I’m at peace with what I’m doing, I feel good with what I wake up doing and about my lifestyle.

You just have to have a simple faith.

He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.

There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.

The Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled.

Some of these Ivy League kids want to have it both ways. They want to be baby members of the 1 percent, which they most certainly are, and yet still portray themselves as the oppressed.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.

I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make – and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn’t quite work.

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

Fortunately there is more wealth in the world than there was at the time of the global economic crisis of 1929 – Chinese, Indian, Arab and Russian.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‚What are we going to do?‘ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.

Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.

To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.

Time is the least thing we have of.

Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes.

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.