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It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca

Source
Letters to Lucilius, 2.6, trans. Richard Gummere
Written
c. AD 62–65

About this quotation

In his second letter to Lucilius, Seneca makes this point while discussing contented poverty. Poverty, for him, is a matter of wanting rather than of owning, which is why a rich man can be poor and a modest one rich. The wording is Richard Gummere’s 1917 Loeb translation, which is in the public domain.

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