Gedanken–, Reise–, Gedanken

Money often costs too much.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you owe nothing, you are rich. Money doesn´t make people happy. But neither does poverty. The secret, then, ist to have as much as you need–or maybe a little more, and then share what you have.
»I enjoy life,« said Seneca, »because I am ready to leave it.« If we can disencumber ourselves of nine-tenths of our worldly goods, it should not be difficult to leave the rest behind.

I learned early–without quite realizing it–that the pleasure of travel is in the journey, and not so much in reaching one´s destination. Destinations rarely live up to the traveller´s expectations. And the pleasure is further reduced if you´re checking your watch all the time. In travel, as in life, give yourself plenty of time, so that you won´t have to rush–you miss seeing the world around you when you are in a great rush, or if you seal yourself off in air-conditioned cars and trains, afraid of the heat and dust.
–Ruskin Bond

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
–Leo Tolstoy

After all, it is a good thing to laugh...and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness.
–John Dryden

We shall not spoil what we have by desiring what we have not, but remember that we what have too was the gift of fortune.
–Epicurus

Epicurus gave us the word epicurean (genussüchtig), denoting a love of the good things in life, and presumably he enjoyed the best of all possible worlds, or else he would not be so uncomplaining.
Good fortune is usually passed on to us by our forebears, who have made fortunes by dint of hard work and by »desiring what they have not«; and so Epicurus, dear man, was talking a lot of rubbish.
To be born in hovel is not a gift of fortune; to grow up hungry is not the gift of the gods. It is only by desiring what we have not, and striving for it, that we have any chance of sharing in that good fortune which may have been »gifted« to the lucky few.
What we should worry about is not desiring what we have not, but desiring too much, and desiring only for ourselves.
–Ruskin Bond