Everyone who is doing something truly important is always simple because they do not have the time to come up with anything superfluous.
Satisfaction reduces every need but grows every vice.
— Amiel
Every new desire is the beginning of a new need, the germ of a new sorrow.
— Voltaire
The one who is a slave to his passions is the lowest of slaves.
— The Talmud
The more you surround yourself with wants, the more you are subjected to slavery, because the more needs you have, the more you limit your freedom. Complete freedom consists in needing absolutely nothing, and the next best thing is to have few needs.
— John Chrysostom
Pleasure and luxury is what you call happiness, but for my part, I think that to want nothing is the bliss of gods, and therefore to limit your needs is to move closer to this highest happiness.
— Socrates
We should not live for our body, but we have to reckon with it in a way. Epicurus says: “If you start living in accordance with nature, then you will never be poor; if you start living in accordance with generally accepted customs, then you will never be rich. Nature demands little, prevailing customs demand excess.”
— Seneca
Limit yourself to plants if you want to eat well and healthily.
— John Chrysostom
The great merit of moderation lies in the fact that only by leading moderate lives can everyone live without need and envy.
