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Socrates

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Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.
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As reported by Charles Simmons in A Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker, containing over a thousand subjects alphabetically and systematically arranged (North Wrentham, Mass. 1852), p. 103 books google. However, the original source of this statement is unknown.
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Cf. Joseph Addison in The Spectator No. 574 Friday, July 30, 1714, p. 655 books.google: In short, content is equivalent to wealth, and luxury to poverty; or, to give the thought a more agreeable turn, "content is natural wealth," says Socrates: to which I shall add, "luxury is artificial poverty.".

 
Socrates

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