"I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes"
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Gibbon reframes wealth as a harmony between arithmetic and appetite. Richness is not a pile of coin but a condition in which income exceeds outlay and desire does not outstrip what one spends. Two thresholds are crossed at once: the ledger shows a surplus, and the heart is content with what it buys. The result is freedom, not only from creditors but from the endless agitation of wanting more.
That pairing reflects an Enlightenment ethic of prudence and self-command. Gibbon, the 18th-century historian famous for The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, admired classical moderation and watched how luxury and unbounded appetites corroded civic virtue in Rome. He implies that decadence begins where wishes expand faster than means. By setting expense equal to wishes, he chooses sufficiency over opulence; by keeping income superior to expense, he secures independence. Wealth thus becomes a moral posture as much as a material state.
The line also answers a perennial economic truth: one can grow rich either by earning more or by wanting less. Most people chase the first route and remain anxious; the second route is within immediate reach, because it depends on governing desires. Gibbon’s balance recognizes both sides. He does not preach asceticism. Expense has its place, but it is bounded by considered wishes, not by envy or fashion. The arithmetic surplus then ceases to be a treadmill and becomes a cushion for thought, study, and civic duty, aims he valued.
The thought still travels well. Financial independence rests on the same equation, and the modern hedonic treadmill mirrors the moral hazards Gibbon observed in Rome. To be rich, finally, is to align means and ends so that money serves settled purposes. When wishes fit within expenses and expenses within income, the surplus is not merely monetary; it is peace.
That pairing reflects an Enlightenment ethic of prudence and self-command. Gibbon, the 18th-century historian famous for The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, admired classical moderation and watched how luxury and unbounded appetites corroded civic virtue in Rome. He implies that decadence begins where wishes expand faster than means. By setting expense equal to wishes, he chooses sufficiency over opulence; by keeping income superior to expense, he secures independence. Wealth thus becomes a moral posture as much as a material state.
The line also answers a perennial economic truth: one can grow rich either by earning more or by wanting less. Most people chase the first route and remain anxious; the second route is within immediate reach, because it depends on governing desires. Gibbon’s balance recognizes both sides. He does not preach asceticism. Expense has its place, but it is bounded by considered wishes, not by envy or fashion. The arithmetic surplus then ceases to be a treadmill and becomes a cushion for thought, study, and civic duty, aims he valued.
The thought still travels well. Financial independence rests on the same equation, and the modern hedonic treadmill mirrors the moral hazards Gibbon observed in Rome. To be rich, finally, is to align means and ends so that money serves settled purposes. When wishes fit within expenses and expenses within income, the surplus is not merely monetary; it is peace.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wealth |
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