Poverty

It is, at all events, plain that wealth contributes nothing great either toward strangers or otherwise to those who possess it, but on the contrary is wont for the most part to make them niggardly and parsimonious rather than poverty does.

And many times, indeed, on other occasions too I had learned in such circumstances — being in continual wandering — and so then in particular, that poverty is in truth a thing sacred and inviolable, and that no one wrongs it, far less indeed than those who bear the herald's wand;

So it seems to me rather to urge on others, as many of the citizens as you can, to work, taking a portion of the public land — those who have some greater capital, and the poor, each as much as he is able — that for you the land may be productive and those of the citizens who are willing may be rid of two of the greatest evils, idleness and poverty.

and frugality is voluntary poverty.

begin to have dealings with poverty.

poverty is unencumbered, free from care.

One must flee poverty, even into the deep-monstered sea to hurl oneself, Cyrnus, and down the sheer rocks.

and blessed too are the poor, whether in spirit or in substance, for the sake of righteousness, that is plain.

—while he looks with indifference on my daughters, who are doomed through poverty to grow old in maidenhood with none to dower them.

And I beg and entreat and implore you, do not suffer my daughters and myself through our poverty to become a source of malicious joy to my own slaves and to his flatterers.

If Phormio had been poor, and it had been our fortune to be wealthy, and if, in the course of nature, anything had happened to me, this fellow’s sons would have claimed my daughters in marriage—the sons of the slave would have claimed the daughters of the master!

whereas poverty and lowliness are attended by sobriety and great moderation;

For while this Council maintained its authority, Athens was not rife with law-suits, or accusations, or tax-levies, or poverty, or war;

for they turned the needier towards farming and trade, knowing that poverty comes about through idleness, and evil-doing through poverty.

When these conditions have been realized, and when we have been freed from the poverty which afflicts our lives—a thing that breaks up friendships, perverts the affections of kindred into enmity, and plunges the whole world into war and strife —then surely we shall enjoy a spirit of concord, and the good will which we shall feel towards each other will be genuine.

It is the mind that makes men rich;

The poverty of the exile, then, has no mishap in it;

How many are the occasions on which they are like the poor!

Despise poverty:

she tries fire upon Mucius, poverty upon Fabricius, exile upon Rutilius, torture upon Regulus, poison upon Socrates, death upon Cato.

you, as though someone had promised you eternal possession of them, grow used to them and cling to them, the wise man most of all meditates upon poverty at the very moment when he stands in the midst of riches.

And what doubt is there that for the wise man there is here a greater matter for the unfolding of his soul in riches than in poverty, since in poverty there is but one kind of virtue—not to be bowed down or crushed—whereas in riches temperance and liberality and diligence and orderly management and magnificence have an open field?

But Callias now remarked, It is your turn, Charmides, to tell us why poverty makes you feel proud.

I hazard the danger with great heroism if I have any expectation of getting something from some one.

but now, far from throwing anything away (for I possess nothing), I am always in expectation of acquiring something.