* Lo and behold! God made this
starry wold,
The maggot and the mold; lo and
behold!
He taught the grass contentment
blade by blade,
The sanctity of sameness in a shade.
 Nathalia Crane, impromptu poem, made at the request of reporters, printed in "Markham v. Prodigy" TIME magazine (23 November 1925)

* Who is rich? Those who are happy with their portion.
 Ben Zoma, reported in Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 32a also found in Pirkei Avot 4:1.

* A joyful heart makes a cheerful face; A sad heart makes a despondent mood. All the days of a poor person are wretched, but contentment is a feast without end.
 Rabbi Meir Leibush (Malbim), Proverbs 15:13 and 15.

* Who seeks more than he needs, hinders himself from enjoying what he has. Seek what you need and give up what you need not. For in giving up what you don’t need, you’ll learn what you really do need.
 Mivhar Hapeninim 155,161, reported in Borowitz and Schwartz, The Jewish Moral Virtues, p.164.

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

* True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
- Charles Caleb Colton, p. 161.

* There are two sorts of content; one is connected with exertion, the other with habits of indolence. The first is a virtue; the other, a vice.
- Maria Edgeworth, p. 161.

* We cannot be young twice; we cannot turn upon our steps, and go back to gather the garlands we gathered ten years ago. And, therefore, with a gaze over on the cross upon the distant hills, and a remembrance always of the shadow land that lies beyond, let us endeavor to be contented with small things, and to make ourselves happy in the pleasantness of simple pleasures.
- Holme Lee, p. 161.

* My God, give me neither poverty nor riches; but whatsoever it may be Thy will to give, give me with it a heart which knows humbly to acquiesce in what is Thy will.
- Christian Scriver, p. 161.

* Come calm content serene and sweet,
O gently guide my pilgrim feet
To find thy hermit cell.
- Anna Letitia Barbauld, p. 161.

 

* Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.
- Socrates, p. 161.