Note 100 — Chapter III · PLATO
Reading edition
Laws 736E: καὶ πενίαν ἡγουμένους εἶναι μὴ τὸ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐλάττω ποιεῖν, ἀλλὸ τὸ τὴν ἀπληστίαν πλείω. Cf. infra on Xenophon for similar ideas. Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, chapter on “Everlasting Yea”: “The fraction of life can be increased in value not so much by increasing your numerator as by lessening your denominator.” Ruskin, Time and Tide, II, 5 ff. (Vol. XVII, 319 ff.); cf. 320, n. 1, for other references. Thoreau: “A man is wealthy in proportion to the number of things he can let alone”—an overemphasized truth.