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It is better not to know wants than not to know want!
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“It is better not to know wants than not to know want!”

Bram Stoker

Source
The Lady of the Shroud
Date
1909
Meaning

Meaning of “It is better not to know wants than…”

The maxim distinguishes being free from manufactured desires from being ignorant of hardship, valuing enoughness without denying the lessons of real need.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Lady of the Shroud, Project Gutenberg #3095. The wording is quoted in a letter as the remembered wisdom of Rupert’s mother; “wants” and “want” are deliberately contrasted.

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DeepGratitudeGrowthHappinessJoyLifeLife AdvicePositive Quotes About a Constructive OutlookSelf ImprovementShortSimplicityThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living Well
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“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden · 1854
Meaning & context

Thoreau asks for direct engagement with the life actually present rather than contempt for it because it falls short of wealth, status or imagined alternatives.

Source details

Walden, “Conclusion,” Project Gutenberg #205. The sentence opens a passage urging the reader to “Love your life, poor as it is” and noting that a quiet mind may live contentedly even in materially poor circumstances. It is not an argument that poverty or injustice should never be changed.

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He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
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“He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”

Proverbs · King James Bible — Proverbs 15:15 · 1611
Meaning & context

A glad disposition can make ordinary life feel abundant even when circumstances are modest, because experience is shaped partly by the heart meeting it.

Source details

Proverbs 15:15 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.

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The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
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“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Nature · 1836
Meaning & context

Emerson connects wisdom with renewed attention, suggesting that curiosity does not always require exotic objects because ordinary experience becomes remarkable when examined closely.

Source details

Nature (first published 1836), Chapter VIII, “Prospects,” in James Munroe and Company’s 1849 new-edition witness represented by Project Gutenberg #29433. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common” appears near the essay’s close during Emerson’s discussion of prayer, study, facts and ideas. This collection retains 1836 as first-publication year while the evidence layer identifies the reviewed 1849 witness; the sentence remains Transcendentalist philosophical rhetoric rather than an experimentally established measure of wisdom.

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Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.
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“Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.”

Lao Tzu · Tao Teh King · ancient
Meaning & context

Contentment supplies a form of enoughness that does not depend on continually acquiring more, making inward sufficiency less vulnerable to comparison and appetite.

Source details

Tao Teh King, chapter 46, James Legge translation; the statement follows warnings about ambition, discontent, and the wish to keep getting.

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I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
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“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

G. K. Chesterton · A Short History of England · 1917
Meaning & context

Chesterton links gratitude with attentive perception: appreciation becomes deeper when ordinary good things are noticed with a sense of wonder.

Source details

A Short History of England, in Chesterton’s discussion of receptiveness and dependence on goods outside oneself.

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My trade and art is to live.
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“My trade and art is to live.”

Michel de Montaigne · Essays of Montaigne — Book II · 1580
Meaning & context

Montaigne makes lived experience itself the central field of inquiry, treating ordinary life as material for reflection rather than a distraction from philosophy.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book II, Chapter VI, “Use Makes Perfect,” Charles Cotton translation, W. C. Hazlitt 1877 edition, Project Gutenberg #3600. “My trade and art is to live” occurs while Montaigne defends speaking from his own sense, experience and practice. It remains early-modern autobiographical essay and moral reflection rather than modern therapeutic or behavioral-science evidence.