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 fault-finder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. 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. May be 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.
不論你的生活如何卑賤，你都要面對它，不要躲避它，咒罵它。它不像你想象的那樣壞。你最富有的時候它看起來是最貧窮的。吹毛求疵的人在天堂也能找到缺點。你要愛你的生活，盡管它貧窮。你也許有一些愉快的，興奮的，光榮的，甚至在一個濟貧。夕陽反射在濟貧院的窗上是從富人的光亮；門前的積雪融化在早春。在那里我看到一個從容的想法，擁有快樂的思想，就像在宮殿里。城鎮(zhèn)中的窮人似乎生活最獨立的生活。也許因為他們很偉大，所以受之無愧。大多數(shù)人以為他們是被城市所支持的；可是事實上他們是不高于支持自己不誠實的手段，這是更為不體面的。視貧窮如園中之花，像圣人。不要自找麻煩地去得到新的東西，無論是衣服還是朋友，找舊的，回到那里。事情并沒有改變；我們改變。賣掉你的衣服，保留你的思想。
不論你的生活如何卑賤，你都要面對它，不要躲避它，咒罵它。它不像你想象的那樣壞。你最富有的時候它看起來是最貧窮的。吹毛求疵的人在天堂也能找到缺點。你要愛你的生活，盡管它貧窮。你也許有一些愉快的，興奮的，光榮的，甚至在一個濟貧。夕陽反射在濟貧院的窗上是從富人的光亮；門前的積雪融化在早春。在那里我看到一個從容的想法，擁有快樂的思想，就像在宮殿里。城鎮(zhèn)中的窮人似乎生活最獨立的生活。也許因為他們很偉大，所以受之無愧。大多數(shù)人以為他們是被城市所支持的；可是事實上他們是不高于支持自己不誠實的手段，這是更為不體面的。視貧窮如園中之花，像圣人。不要自找麻煩地去得到新的東西，無論是衣服還是朋友，找舊的，回到那里。事情并沒有改變；我們改變。賣掉你的衣服，保留你的思想。