Blessed poverty. Seneca, Epistles 2.20.7-8

Seneca advises Lucilius to be content with life in its most minimal and personal expressions. Poverty that does not damage our health is actually preferable to wealth, as it allows us to make real friends and avoid wasting precious time with people who don't actually care for us.

Quid fiet inquis huic turbae familiarium sine re familiari? Turba ista cum a te pasci desierit, ipsa se pascet, aut quod tu beneficio tuo non potes scire, paupertatis scies: illa veros certosque amicos retinebit, discedet quisquis non te se aliud sequebatur. Non est autem vel ob hoc unum amanda paupertas, quod a quibus ameris ostendet? O quando ille veniet dies quo nemo in honorem tuum mentiatur! Huc ergo cogitationes tuae tendant, hoc cura, hoc opta, omnia alia vota deo remissurus, ut contentus sis temet ipso et ex te nascentibus bonis. Quae potest esse felicitas propior? Redige te ad parva ex quibus cadere non possis, idque ut libentius facias, ad hoc pertinebit tributum huius epistulae, quod statim conferam.

"What shall happen," you ask, "to my crowd of friends and family, if I lose mine estate?" When that crowd ceases to eat at your table, it will have to feed itself. Then you will learn from poverty what you cannot know in wealth: she will reveal your true and steadfast friends, as those who followed you for something apart from yourself abandon your company. Is this benefit not enough, on its own, to recommend affection for poverty, the fact that she shows by whom you are loved? O blessed day, when none shall pay homage to your honor with lies! Let all your thoughts turn to this one thing: that you should be content with yourself, and the goods that arise from you. Choose this. Nurture it. Send all other things away, offering them back to the gods. What happiness is there greater or nearer to us than this? Drive yourself back to the small things, the little standing from which you cannot fall. The aphorism I offer as tribute in this epistle will help you do this more pleasantly. I shall bestow it upon you now.