#sufficiency

The essential cultural discrimination is not between having and not having or haves and have-nots, but between the superfluous and the indispensable. Wisdom, it seems to me, is always poised upon the knowledge of minimums; it might be thought to be the art of minimums. Granting the frailty, and no doubt the impermanence, of modern technology as a human contrivance, the man who can keep a fire in a stove or on a hearth is not only more durable, but wiser, closer to the meaning of fire, than the man who can only work a thermostat. ↗

— Wendell Berry

#simplicity #art

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#concept #continually #exile #loneliness #me

The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient. ↗

— Francis Quarles

#merit #sufficiency #sufficient

The business of procuring the necessities of life has been shifted from the wood lot, the garden, the kitchen and the family to the factory and the large-scale enterprise. In our case, we moved our center back to the land. ↗

— Helen Nearing

#self-sufficiency #business

Father, today I fought with my friend.” Her father says: “Why did you fight with your friend?” “Because she insulted me, and I was angry.” “Why were you so angry?” “Because she lied about me.” (In some versions: “Because I was hurt by her words.”) “My daughter, did your friend’s words change who you are?” “No.” “Then do not be angry. The opinions of others cannot damage you. ↗

— Veronica Roth

#self-sufficiency #true #change

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ↗

— Michel de Montaigne

#independence #individuality #inspirational #self-assurance #self-awareness

Sufficeincy isn't two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn't a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn't an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough. ↗

— Brené Brown

#experience

Why ask for your daily bread when you own the bakery? ↗

— Randy Alcorn

#faith #materialism #self-sufficiency #temptation #wealth

Over the years, Americans in particular have been all too willing to squander their hard-earned independence and freedom for the illusion of feeling safe under someone else's authority. The concept of self-sufficiency has been undermined in value over a scant few generations. The vast majority of the population seems to look down their noses upon self-reliance as some quaint dusty relic, entertained only by the hyperparanoid or those hopelessly incapable of fitting into mainstream society. ↗

— Cody Lundin

#preparedness #self-reliance #self-sufficiency #survival #freedom

For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose. ↗

— Marcus Aurelius

#independence #individuality #retire #self #self-assurance