"Contentment consist not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire"
About this Quote
A hearth that roars will not calm by piling on more logs. It quiets when the flames are banked. Thomas Fuller uses this homely physics to teach a psychological law: contentment comes not from supplying desire with more objects, but from moderating the desire itself. Fuel stands for wealth, achievement, novelty, and praise; the fire is craving, agitation, ambition, and anger. As long as the inner blaze grows, no amount of external provision will suffice. Peace is an inward adjustment, not an external acquisition.
An English cleric and aphorist, Fuller wrote within a moral tradition that prized moderation. Christian teaching celebrated contentment as a learned virtue, echoing St. Pauls claim to be content whatever his circumstances. Stoic wisdom offered a similar curriculum, urging people to govern their judgments and curb insatiable appetites. Fullers image distills these currents with practical clarity. It does not demand ascetic coldness; he does not say extinguish the fire. He says take away some fire. Keep enough warmth for purpose and love, but damp the blaze that turns life into a furnace of unrest.
The metaphor remains sharp in a consumer age that confuses relief with more fuel: another raise, another purchase, another notification. The hedonic treadmill proves Fullers point; satisfaction spikes and fades because the fire simply learns to expect more. A better strategy is thermodynamic: lower the thermostat. Temper expectations, practice gratitude, prune comparisons, slow the pace. These are acts of subtraction that expand room for contentment.
There is also a moral edge. Anger, envy, and pride are fires that demand endless offerings and scorch their bearers first. Taking away some fire means stepping back from the impulses that rule us, reclaiming agency over what we attend to and how we interpret our lot. By shifting effort from feeding desire to shaping it, Fuller reframes success as mastery of appetite. Lasting contentment, he suggests, is less about more and more about enough.
An English cleric and aphorist, Fuller wrote within a moral tradition that prized moderation. Christian teaching celebrated contentment as a learned virtue, echoing St. Pauls claim to be content whatever his circumstances. Stoic wisdom offered a similar curriculum, urging people to govern their judgments and curb insatiable appetites. Fullers image distills these currents with practical clarity. It does not demand ascetic coldness; he does not say extinguish the fire. He says take away some fire. Keep enough warmth for purpose and love, but damp the blaze that turns life into a furnace of unrest.
The metaphor remains sharp in a consumer age that confuses relief with more fuel: another raise, another purchase, another notification. The hedonic treadmill proves Fullers point; satisfaction spikes and fades because the fire simply learns to expect more. A better strategy is thermodynamic: lower the thermostat. Temper expectations, practice gratitude, prune comparisons, slow the pace. These are acts of subtraction that expand room for contentment.
There is also a moral edge. Anger, envy, and pride are fires that demand endless offerings and scorch their bearers first. Taking away some fire means stepping back from the impulses that rule us, reclaiming agency over what we attend to and how we interpret our lot. By shifting effort from feeding desire to shaping it, Fuller reframes success as mastery of appetite. Lasting contentment, he suggests, is less about more and more about enough.
Quote Details
| Topic | Contentment |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
