However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means. Which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends, Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

    論你的生活如何卑賤，你要面對(duì)它生活，不要躲避它，更別用惡言咒罵它。它不像你那樣壞。你最富有的時(shí)候，倒是看似最窮。愛(ài)找缺點(diǎn)的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺點(diǎn)。你要愛(ài)你的生活，盡管它貧窮。甚至在一個(gè)濟(jì)貧院里，你也還有愉快、高興、光榮的時(shí)候。夕陽(yáng)反射在濟(jì)貧院的窗上，像身在富戶(hù)人家窗上一樣光亮；在那門(mén)前，積雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一個(gè)從容的人，在哪里也像在皇宮中一樣，生活得心滿(mǎn)意足而富有愉快的思想。城鎮(zhèn)中的窮人，我看，倒往往是過(guò)著最獨(dú)立不羈的生活。也許因?yàn)樗麄兒艽�，所以受之無(wú)愧。大多數(shù)人以為他們是超然的，不靠城鎮(zhèn)來(lái)支援他們；可是事實(shí)上他們是往往利用了不正當(dāng)?shù)氖侄蝸?lái)對(duì)付生活，他們是毫不超脫的，毋寧是不體面的。視貧窮如園中之花而像圣人一樣耕植它吧！不要找新的花樣，無(wú)論是新的朋友或新的衣服，來(lái)麻煩你自己。找舊的，回到那里去。萬(wàn)物不變，是我們?cè)谧�。你的衣服可以賣(mài)掉，但要保留你的思想。