无论生活多么卑微， 你要面对它， 接受它， 不要躲避它， 不要咒骂它。 它不像你想象的那样坏。 你最富有的时候， 倒看似最穷。 爱找缺点的人到天堂也能找到缺点。 热爱生活吧， 尽管它贫穷。 你会拥有愉快、 激动、 光荣的时光， 甚至在济贫院里也如此。
夕阳照在济贫院的窗上， 如同照在富裕人家窗上一样明亮， 门前的积雪同样在早春融化。
我就看见一个淡定的人， 过着满足而愉快的生活， 宛如生活在宫殿里一般。在我看来， 城里的穷人过着最独立不羁的生活。 也许他们知足了， 可欣然接受。
多数人自以为不靠别人过日子， 可事实上他们往往借助不正当的手段过上体面生活， 这样的行为应该更让人所不齿。
视贫穷如园中之草， 努力像圣人一样耕植它吧！ 不要花太多的心思寻找新花样， 无论是新朋友还是新衣服。 扭转旧貌， 回到原状。 世事不变， 我们在变。
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. Maybe 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.