Philosophers are more likely to be poor than rich. Some have made a virtue out of that.
Diogenes of Sinope, the original Cynic, watched a mouse that seemed to be content with very little, just a scrap of grain, and modelled his own abstemious behaviour accordingly. If the mouse could get by with so little, why couldn’t he? He lived with just one cloak and no other clothes and used a large empty storage jar for shelter. He did have a cup, but when he saw a boy drinking using his hands, he go...