quotations about contentment
Contentment empties the heart of all superfluous carriage, thus leaving it entirely for Allah.
AAIDH IBN ABDULLAH AL-QARNI
Don't Be Sad
Contentment is both the fruit and the tree.
DAVE RAMSEY
More than Enough
Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
SOCRATES
Essential Thinkers
The wise man contents himself with what he has, until such time as he invents something better.
JOSÉ SARAMAGO
Baltasar and Blimunda
Contentment gives a crown where fortune hath denied it.
THOMAS FORD
The Young Men's Magazine, 1857
Never ever have a nickel in my jeans
Never ever have a debt to pay
Still I understand what real contentment means
Guess I was born, born that way
DEAN MARTIN
"Twilight on the Trail"
Contentment is a feeling you say? Are you sure it's not an absence of feeling? I liken it to that particular numbness one gets after a visit to the dentist. Not in pain nor out of it, slightly drugged. Contentment is the positive side of resignation.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Written on the Body
Content hangs not so high but that a man on the ground may reach it.
ELIZA COOK
Eliza Cook's Journal
Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
PAUL OF TARSUS
1 Timothy 6:6-7
I flush with heaving passion's strange delight,
Yet find contentment lost in appetite.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Quest for God"
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
PLATO
The Republic
Contentment is never the outcome of fulfillment, of achievement, or of the possession of things; it is not born of action or inaction. It comes with the fullness of what is, not in the alteration of it.
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
Commentaries on Living 2
My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VI, Part III
What I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.
HERMANN HESSE
Steppenwolf
True contentment is not passive satisfaction: it is understanding why there is nothing further to be desired.
ELLIS HEYWOOD
Il Moro
For the first time, she did want more. She did not know what she wanted, knew that it was dangerous and that she should rest content with what she had, but she knew an emptiness deep inside her, which began to ache.
IAIN PEARS
The Dream of Scipio
If you're an average person trying to get ahead in the world, contentment is probably the last thing you're striving for, yet there's a good chance that you long for it. Why? Because at its core, contentment is peace of mind. Contentment is happiness. The person who is content has little or no stress. Yet we forge ahead like a soldier going into battle. We dive headlong into society's raging river and get caught up in a cycle of overspending, overcommitting, and overworking. And all for what? Happiness. Peace of mind. Satisfaction. But we're only kidding ourselves. Striving, consuming, and accumulating will never bring happiness. What they bring is anxiety, worry, unhappiness, and--in the long run--ineffectiveness.
BRUCE BICKEL & STAN JANTZ
The Best of God Is in the Small Stuff
Ten poor men sleep in peace on one straw heap, as Saadi sings,
But the immensest empire is too narrow for two kings.
WILLIAM R. ALGER
"Elbow Room", Poetry of the Orient
Someone else is happy with less than what you have.
CARYS BRAY
The Museum of You
Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown.
ROBERT GREENE
Farewell to Folly