120 Quotes About Contentment

We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.

Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another's.

Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!

True rest is not that of torpor, but that of harmony; it is not refusing the struggle, but conquering in it; not resting from duty, but finding rest in it.

If a soldier or labourer complains of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.

God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears, and failures. Believers who have become discontent with 'surviving' and have taken the time to investigate everything God has to offer in this life.

Among all the accomplishments of youth there is none preferable to a decent and agreeable behavior among men, a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity and good-humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under the ruffling accidents of human life.

What can this world offer comparable with that insight into spiritual things, that keen faith, that heavenly peace, that high sanctity, that everlasting righteousness, that hope of glory, which they have, who in sincerity love and follow our Lord Jesus Christ?

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

All joy emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.

What cannot be altered must be borne, not blamed.

Let no man carry you beyond the bounds God hath set for you, nor make you believe he hath found a plainer or more certain way to heaven than Christ hath given us.

The more we accommodate ourselves to plain things, and the less we indulge in those artificial delights which gratify pride and luxury, the nearer we approach to a state of innocency.

I knew I was in danger but was not depressed. I've read pretty well everything.

If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.

You say, "If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied." You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

I am never better than when I am on the full stretch for God.

Unsatisfied desire is in itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.

You say, "If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied." You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.

I would not change my blest estate for all the world calls good or great.

Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.

I will not meddle with that which I cannot mend.

What God chooses for us children of men is always the best.

He hath no leisure who useth it not.

Being "contented" ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.

There's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve him, boldness to share him, and contentment in him.

No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

Let thy mind's sweetness have its operation upon thy body, thy clothes, and thy habitation.

The consistent development of godly character qualities generally produces a heart of contentment.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

Nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges, that it should be resistant, should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Grant that we may hold the world with a loose hand.

A little child often runs to its mother and exclaims: 'Mother! Mother!' Very often the child does not want anything in particular, he only wants to be near his mother, to sit upon her lap, or to follow her about the house, for the sheer pleasure of being near her, talking to her, hearing her dear voice. Then the child is happy. His happiness does not consist in asking and receiving all kinds of things from his mother. If that were what he wanted, he would be impatient and obstinate and therefore unhappy. No, his happiness lies in feeling his mother's love and care, and in knowing the joy of her mother love." "It is just the same with the true children of God; they do not trouble themselves so much about spiritual blessings. They only want to sit at the Lord's feet, to be in living touch with Him, and when they do that they are supremely content.

Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.

Many things--such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly--are done worst when we try hardest to do them.

Thou must content thyself to see the world imperfect as it is. Thou wilt never have any quiet if thou vexest thyself because thou canst not bring mankind to that exact notion of things and rule of life which thou hast formed in thy own mind.

When you become satisfied with God, however, everything else so loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm.

The sound of 'gentle stillness' after all the thunder and wind have passed will be the ultimate Word from God.

Nothing makes God more supreme and more central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing - not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends - nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God.

The man who gets ahead is the man who works while others sleep. The people who do great works for God are those who are content and stay at their job.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue - not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.

In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are.

The true enjoyments must be spontaneous and compulsive and look to no remoter end.

We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.

If the Lord sets you to guard a lonely post in perfect stillness from all active work, you ought to be just as content as to be in the midst of the active warfare. It is no virtue to love the Master's work better than the Master's will.

After a person has forsaken his natural longings he obtains a genuinely restful life. Formerly he had many desires. To satisfy them he planned, plotted and contrived, exhausting every ounce of his wisdom and power. His heart was in constant turmoil. But that child of God who purely follows the spirit and seeks not his own pleasure is satisfied with what God gives to him: and his restlessness immediately ceases.

A cheerful spirit is one of the most valuable gifts ever bestowed upon humanity by a kind Creator. It is the sweetest and most fragrant flower of the Spirit, that constantly sends out its beauty and fragrance, and blesses everything within its reach. It will sustain the soul in the darkest and most dreary places of this world. It will hold in check the demons of despair, and stifle the power of discouragement and hopelessness. It is the brightest star that ever cast its radiance over the darkened soul and one that seldom sets in the gloom of morbid fancies and foreboding imaginations.

I would fain know all that I need, and all that I may. I leave God's secrets to himself. It is happy for me that God makes me of his court, and not of his council.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.

This is the secret of being content: To learn and accept that we live daily by God's unmerited favor given through Christ, and that we can respond to any and every situation by His divine enablement through the Holy Spirit.

Instead of complaining at his lot, a contented man is thankful that his condition and circumstances are no worse than they are. Instead of greedily desiring something more than the supply of his present need, he rejoices that God still cares for him. Such a one is "content" with such as he has.

Venture not to the utmost bounds of even lawful pleasures; the limits of good and evil join.

When people cast fear to the wind and spend themselves and risk their lives and fortune in the cause of God's truth, and in love for other people, then God is revealed for who He really is: infinitely valuable and satisfying--so much so that His people don't need the fleeting pleasures of sin in order to be content.

If the wicked flourish and thou suffer, be not discouraged; they are fatted for destruction, thou art dieted for health.

A cheerful look makes a dish a feast.

Mankind, by the perverse depravity of their nature, esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed, and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach.

Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him requires a lot of courage and know-how.

To play well the scenes in which we are 'on' concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.

Cast not away your confidence because God defers his performances. That which does not come in your time, will be hastened in his time, which is always the more convenient season. God will work when he pleases, how he pleases, and by what means he pleases. He is not bound to keep our time, but he will perform his word, honour our faith, and reward them that diligently seek him.

Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.

Let your prayer for temporal blessings be strictly limited to things absolutely necessary.

If the sun of God's countenance shine upon me, I may well be content to be wet with the rain of affliction.

He who is able to accept everything gladly from the Lord - including darkness, dryness, flatness - and completely disregard self is he who lives for Him.

Learn to say 'no' to the good so you can say 'yes' to the best.

If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a glass slipper on a gouty foot.

True contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.