Make peace with poverty! Seneca, Epistulae 1.4.10-11.

The method is more important than the measure. Poverty, with the proper method, becomes wealth. This is what those who count measures always miss, that quantity is never a safe substitute for quality. Thus ends Seneca's fourth epistle. You can hear it <here>.

Sed ut finem epistulae imponam, accipe quod mihi hodierno die placuit, et hoc quoque ex alienis hortulis sumptum est: 'magnae divitiae sunt lege naturae composita paupertas.' Lex autem illa naturae scis quos nobis terminos statuat? Non esurire, non sitire, non algere. Ut famem sitimque depellas non est necesse superbis assidere liminibus nec supercilium grave et contumeliosam etiam humanitatem pati. Non est necesse maria temptare nec sequi castra: parabile est quod natura desiderat et appositum. Ad supervacua sudatur; illa sunt quae togam conterunt, quae nos senescere sub tentorio cogunt, quae in aliena litora impingunt: ad manum est quod sat est. Cui cum paupertate bene convenit dives est. Vale.

But that I may make an end to this epistle, please accept for yourself something that has delighted me today, a small shoot taken from another's garden: 'When it is fitted together in accordance with the law of nature, poverty becomes great wealth.' Do you know what limits this law of nature imposes on us? To avoid hunger, thirst, and pain. Warding off hunger and thirst does not require you to besiege the thresholds of the proud, or to endure the heavy and insolent humanity of the arrogant. No need to take to the sea or muster an expedition. What nature desires is ready to hand and easy to work. Sweat is reserved for needless things, the sort that wear out your toga, force us to grow old in tents, or launch us against foreign shores. But we already have enough within our grasp. He who makes his peace with poverty is rich. Farewell.