“I cannot enjoy my earnings.”

Original: Je ne puis jouir de mon gain. — Rimbaud recognises that relentless work has deprived him of the very leisure his earnings should have provided. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Contentment
• Money
• Work

“Happiness must come from within in order to respond to that which comes from without.”

Defining happiness as an inner capacity rather than merely an external reward · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

• Contentment
• Happiness
• Self

“For every hour of pain, I have had a day of pleasure. For every moment of worry, an hour of content.”

Balancing suffering against her larger experience of pleasure and contentment · Essay, Optimism

• Contentment
• Pain
• Pleasure

“It will be a trifle more expensive than I thought, but we will make the best of it.”

A resigned, cheerful note on unexpected cost · Letter to Anna Harte, Glasgow, September 5, 1884

• Contentment
• Money

“We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.”

Contentment is lost in the pursuit of more · Conversation / essay (as commonly attributed)

• Contentment
• Desire
• Happiness

“I have forgotten all the philosophy about contentment I intended to bore you with.”

A self-mocking rejection of his own intended sermon on contentment · Letter to Phineas Barnes, May 8, 1830

• Contentment
• Humour
• Philosophy

“A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little pleasant garden, and a few friendly books.”

Expressing a desire for a modest, tranquil life devoted to study and nature · Essay, Of Myself

• Books
• Contentment
• Simplicity

“Never wish you had some other person's life or troubles or worries.”

Rejecting comparison with other people's circumstances · Essay, Destiny

• Acceptance
• Comparison
• Contentment

“Let me drive out of myself the universal madness to be elsewhere in search of the joy of life, for the joy of life resides within oneself.”

Argues that contentment is an inner discipline, not a change of scene · Journal, on remaining in Terre Haute

• Contentment
• Joy
• Place

“I possess my visions and peace.”

Inner possession is claimed against the pity of prosperous visitors · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson

• Contentment
• Peace
• Vision

“At least during many long months I shall have peace as to money affairs, and one evil the less is much to one whose existence is suffering alone.”

Finding value in even temporary relief when life is burdened by grief and uncertainty. · Letter to Maria Gisborne, 17 September 1822

• Contentment
• Money
• Suffering

“A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.”

Contentment measured against need rather than against others · The Spectator, No. 574, 30 July 1714

• Abundance
• Contentment
• Moderation

“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

Inward sufficiency ranked above outward fortune · The Spectator, No. 574, 30 July 1714

• Contentment
• Happiness
• Mind

“Somehow all that I have missed in the big ways of the world with its fanfare of trumpets, have more than been compensated for through the fragrant friendships I have known.”

Sets intimate fellowship above public acclaim · Letter to Langston Hughes, about 1930

• Contentment
• Fame
• Friendship

“Do not let tomorrow’s worries steal today’s delight.”

Original: لا تدع هموم الغد تسرق منك متعة اليوم — Encourages living in the present moment · Attributed advice (Arabic)

• Contentment
• Delight
• Time

“A man must be overly ambitious who is not satisfied with moderation.”

Praising balance and restraint over endless striving · Essay, Of Moderation

• Ambition
• Contentment
• Moderation

“If you are conscious of this growth, let no lack of material success for one moment disturb you. That will come, enough for your need, in time.”

Encouraging readers not to measure their worth solely through material achievement · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Contentment
• Growth
• Success

“When crises pall, humdrum is sensational.”

Ordinary life recovering its strangeness once catastrophe grows stale · Flying Scrolls, collected in The Skylark and Other Poems

• Contentment
• Life
• Novelty

“The happiness of this earthly life is only a secondary thing, as all those know who have pursued happiness and found its fruit bitter.”

Original: Lecz to szczęście ziemskie jest tylko podrzędną rzeczą i wiedzą o tem wszyscy, którzy tylko za szczęściem gonili, i którym ten owoc w ustach zgorzkniał. — He places worldly happiness below the deeper spiritual purposes that increasingly governed his life. · Letter to his mother, 18 March 1843 (Polish)

• Contentment
• Happiness
• Spirituality

“Surely I want to live, because life, taken as it is, without exaggeration or deception, is not as bad as some people say.”

Original: Seguramente que deseo vivir, porque la vida, tomándola tal como es, sin exageraciones ni engaños, no es tan mala como dicen algunos. — The remark expresses a modest, unsentimental affirmation of life as it actually is. · Letter III, Cartas desde mi celda (Spanish)

• Acceptance
• Contentment
• Life

“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises from the enjoyment of one's self, and from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”

Happiness placed in inward ease and a small circle rather than display · The Spectator, No. 15, 17 March 1711

• Contentment
• Friendship
• Happiness

“If I could only have news from home I should be perfectly contented.”

Showing how little he needed beyond contact with home to feel content · Letter from Europe

• Contentment
• Home
• Longing

“For could I have the comfort of knowing that you are content - I should be more than glad of his consent.”

Revealing how deeply her friend's peace of mind mattered to her · Letter to Maria Weston Chapman, December 25, 1883

• Compassion
• Contentment
• Friendship