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.
不论你的生活如何卑贱，你都要面对它，不要躲避它，咒骂它。它不像你想象的那样坏。你最富有的时候它看起来是最贫穷的。吹毛求疵的人在天堂也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。你也许有一些愉快的，兴奋的，光荣的，甚至在一个济贫。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上是从富人的光亮；门前的积雪融化在早春。在那里我看到一个从容的想法，拥有快乐的思想，就像在宫殿里。城镇中的穷人似乎生活最独立的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是被城市所支持的；可是事实上他们是不高于支持自己不诚实的手段，这是更为不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花，像圣人。不要自找麻烦地去得到新的东西，无论是衣服还是朋友，找旧的，回到那里。事情并没有改变；我们改变。卖掉你的衣服，保留你的思想。