Seneca on luxury, poverty

A couple more quotes before I banish Seneca back to the library.

As far as I am concerned I have lost not wealth but distractions. The body's needs are few: it wants to be free from cold, to banish hunger and thirst with nourishment; if we long for anything more we are exerting ourselves to serve our vices, not our needs. We do not need to scour every ocean, or to load our bellies with the slaughter of animals or to pluck shellfish from the unknown shores of the furthest sea. May gods and goddesses destroy those whose luxury passes the bounds of an empire that already awakens envy.

Consolation to Helvia

So the ideal amount of money is that which neither falls within the range of poverty nor far exceeds it.

On Tranquility of Mind