“Nothing can satisfy greed, but even a small measure satisfies nature. So it is that the poverty of an exile brings no misfortune, for no place of exile is so barren as not to produce ample support for a person.”
SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 10.11b
Today’s quote in the Daily Stoic comes again from Seneca’s letter to his mother after he’d been exiled, trying to comfort her.
His point in this quote is that greed is never satisfied — but the actual, natural needs of a human being are relatively simple, and easily met.
It’s not always greed that causes us to think we need more than we actually do. Sometimes it’s the pursuit of luxury that colors our view and fools our better sensibilities.
But most often, it’s simply that over time we grow accustomed to the bounty that we’ve been blessed with, and we start to think it’s a requirement. We start to think we need all the things we have.
Of course, we don’t really need all these things to survive, or even to just be happy. The human tendency, however, is to always want more — the threshold is always rising. What felt bountiful before is now unacceptably insufficient, and the bar is raised again and again. We want more, because we’re convinced our life is lacking.
The truth is — and we all know it, deep down inside — that we can actually make do with less. We can get started now, by being more frugal and only buying what we truly need.
Or try this exercise: look back and remember how it felt to have less, back when you were younger and poorer than you are now. You survived, didn’t you? You probably even thrived, and maybe even felt more alive than at any other point in your life. And now that you have “all the things”… what has that done for you? Do you feel more fulfilled, more satisfied?
You already know the answer.
