This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The seat of perfect contentment is in the head; for every individual is thoroughly satisfied with his own proportion of brains.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but the world was too little for Alexander.
Contentment | Enough | Little | World |
The mind is a river; upon its water thoughts float through in a constant procession every conscious moment. It is a narrow river, however, and you stand on a bridge over it and can stop and turn back any thought that comes along, and they can come only single file, one at a time. The art of contentment is to let no thought pass that is going to disturb you.
The art of contentment is to let no thought pass that is going to disturb you.
Art | Contentment | Thought | Art | Thought |
The rarest feeling that ever lights a human face is the contentment of a loving soul.
Contentment | Soul |
Freedom and the consciousness of it as a faculty of following the moral law with unyielding resolution is independence of inclinations, at least as motives determining (though not as affecting) our desire, and so far as I am conscious of this freedom in following my moral maxims, it is the only source of an unaltered contentment which is necessarily connected with it and rests on no special feeling.
Consciousness | Contentment | Desire | Freedom | Law | Maxims | Moral law | Motives | Resolution | Following |
The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.
Contentment | Desire | Knowing |
Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
True contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it.
Contentment | Power |
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
Contentment | Luxury | Poverty | Wealth |
Benjamin Collins Brodie, fully Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet
The failure of the mind in old age is often less the results of natural decay, than of disuse. Ambition has ceased to operate; contentment bring indolence, and indolence decay of mental power, ennui, and sometimes death. Men have been known to die, literally speaking, of disease induced by intellectual vacancy.
Age | Ambition | Contentment | Death | Disease | Ennui | Failure | Indolence | Men | Mind | Old age | Power | Ambition | Failure | Old |
Happiness is not in strength, or wealth, or power, or all three. It lies in ourselves, in true freedom, in the conquest of every ignoble fear, in perfect self-government, in a power of contentment and peace, and the even flow of life, even in poverty, exile, disease, and the very valley of the shadow of death.
Conquest | Contentment | Power |
Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
One should either be sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers.
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature, and a continuous moral progress toward inward contentment and religious submission, is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
Contentment | Improvement | Life | Life | Nothing | Progress | Waste |
Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh NULL
Discontentment is human, contentment is divine. Animals know neither contentment nor discontentment; they simply go on living mechanically, unconsciously. It is the great privilege of human being to be aware of discontent. To be aware of discontent means there is a possibility to grow towards contentment. But very few people make any effort towards inner growth. Their whole life is rooted in a misunderstanding. They think that if they have a bigger house or more money or more power or more prestige they will be contented; that if they become famous, if their name is known all over the world, then they will be contented. That is sheer nonsense.
Contentment | Discontent | Effort | Life | Life | Means | Money | People | Power | Will | Privilege | Think |
Krishna, also Kreeshna, Krsna, Lord Krishna NULL
The greatest contentment comes from devotion alone and not from it's rewards, therefore one who has this devotion seeks nothing else.
Contentment | Devotion | Nothing |
Lawrence Sterne, alternatively Laurence Sterne
Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness.
Contentment | Principles | Will |
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.