"A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants"
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Addison urges a shift in the arithmetic of happiness. Instead of tallying what is missing, he suggests measuring life by the surplus beyond true need. The older sense of the word want helps here: it means lack, not merely desire. To ask how much one has more than one wants is to compare one’s possessions to real necessities, not to ever-expanding appetites. That mental move turns envy into gratitude and abundance into responsibility.
As a leading voice of the Augustan age and cofounder of The Spectator, Addison wrote for a growing middle-class readership in London’s coffeehouses, where manners, morals, and commerce mingled. His essays aimed to cultivate a polite, balanced character amid the new temptations of luxury and speculation. In a mercantile society, wants multiply as quickly as goods; the standard of enough recedes with every acquisition. Addison counters that drift by recommending a simple audit: count blessings, not cravings.
Behind the counsel lies both Stoic sobriety and Christian gratitude. The Stoic sees desire as the engine of restlessness; the Christian sees gifts as occasions for humility and charity. Modern psychology would add that attention shapes emotion: people adapt to gains, fixate on lacks, and compare upward. Deliberately noticing what exceeds necessity interrupts this bias. It also invites generosity. If one truly has more than one wants, the surplus is not just a private cushion but a public trust.
The line is not an argument for complacency or stagnation. Ambition can be disciplined without being extinguished. The point is freedom: limitless wanting makes a person captive to comparison and fashion, whereas satisfaction rooted in sufficiency makes room for prudence, pleasure, and care for others. By changing the denominator from desire to need, Addison offers a durable metric for contentment in any age.
As a leading voice of the Augustan age and cofounder of The Spectator, Addison wrote for a growing middle-class readership in London’s coffeehouses, where manners, morals, and commerce mingled. His essays aimed to cultivate a polite, balanced character amid the new temptations of luxury and speculation. In a mercantile society, wants multiply as quickly as goods; the standard of enough recedes with every acquisition. Addison counters that drift by recommending a simple audit: count blessings, not cravings.
Behind the counsel lies both Stoic sobriety and Christian gratitude. The Stoic sees desire as the engine of restlessness; the Christian sees gifts as occasions for humility and charity. Modern psychology would add that attention shapes emotion: people adapt to gains, fixate on lacks, and compare upward. Deliberately noticing what exceeds necessity interrupts this bias. It also invites generosity. If one truly has more than one wants, the surplus is not just a private cushion but a public trust.
The line is not an argument for complacency or stagnation. Ambition can be disciplined without being extinguished. The point is freedom: limitless wanting makes a person captive to comparison and fashion, whereas satisfaction rooted in sufficiency makes room for prudence, pleasure, and care for others. By changing the denominator from desire to need, Addison offers a durable metric for contentment in any age.
Quote Details
| Topic | Gratitude |
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