“To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.”

— Confucius

Source: The Analects of Confucius

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy." by Confucius?

Confucius 269

Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551–-479 BC

Related quotes

“Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.”

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) novelist

Source: The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Ch. 28.

“Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Voyage to Houyhnhnms, Ch. 5
Gulliver's Travels (1726)

“Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor;
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 905.

“NAUGHTY AND NICE? said Death. BUT IT'S EASY TO BE NICE IF YOU'RE RICH. IS THIS FAIR?
Albert wanted to argue. He wanted to say, Really? In that case, how come so many of the rich buggers is bastards? And being poor don't mean being naughty, neither.”

Terry Pratchett book Hogfather

Source: Hogfather

“Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“It is likewise with the proud, rich man: he will never have mercy on the poor man because of his hue or his cry, but if the poor man could wreak vengeance on him, then you would see the rich man bow.”

Marie de France medieval poet

Si est del riche orguillus:
Ja del povre n'avra merci
Pur sa pleinte ne pur sun cri;
Mes se cil s'en peüst vengier,
Dunc le verreit l'um suzpleier.
Fables, no. 10, "The Fox and the Eagle", line 18; cited from Mary Lou Martin (trans.) The Fables of Marie de France (Birmingham, Alabama: Summa, 1984) pp. 54-6. Translation from the same source, p. 55.

“If there is one subject in this world worthy of being discussed, worthy of being understood, it is the question of intellectual liberty. Without that, we are simply painted clay; without that, we are poor, miserable serfs and slaves.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)

“The murmuring poor, who will not fast in peace.”

George Crabbe (1754–1832) English poet, surgeon, and clergyman

The Newspaper (1785), line 158.

“The path to perfection is difficult to men in every lot; there is no royal road for rich or poor. But difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.”

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman

"Self-Culture", an address in Boston (September 1838)
Context: The path to perfection is difficult to men in every lot; there is no royal road for rich or poor. But difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. And how much has it already overcome! Under what burdens of oppression has it made its way for ages What mountains of difficulty has it cleared! And with all this experience, shall we say that the progress of the mass of men is to be despaired of; that the chains of bodily necessity are too strong and ponderous to be broken by the mind; that servile, unimproving drudgery is the unalterable condition of the multitude of the human race?

“Ye are born, all of you, to a royal birthright. Scorn not the poor, thou wealthy — his toil is nobler than thy luxury. Fret not at the rich, thou poor — his beneficence is comelier than thy murmuring. Join hands, both of you, rich and poor together, as ye toil in the brotherhood of God's great harvest-field — heirs of a double heritage — thou poor, of thy kingly labor — thou rich, of thy queenly charity — and let heaven bear witness to the bridal.”

William Morley Punshon (1824–1881) English Nonconformist minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 111.

“To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Confucius 269

Related quotes

Related topics