Economy is the foundation of human prosperity. The spendthrift is always in trouble. Prodigality on the part of any person is an unpardonable sin. The fewer the habits, the better for the man. It is a divine virtue to be satisfied with very few things. Contentment is the antidote for all the social diseases. We must live an independent life. We must never live on others like a parasitic plant. Every person must have a profession, whether it be literary or manual, and must live a clean, manly, honest life, an example of purity to be imitated by others. Contentment is the master key to all success. If the members of my family starve I will not ask money from the people. It is more kingly to be satisfied with a crust of stale bread than to enjoy a good dinner composed of many delicious dishes the money for which comes out of the pockets of others. . . . A Bahai must be satisfied. There was a time that I lived on five cents a day and I was then much happier than I am now. The Persian Bahais often live in the utmost poverty and want, yet they never complain nor ask for money from any one. Begging they consider to be below their spiritual station. A man who is the beneficiary of the treasury of the Kingdom is not poor. There have been some rich Bahais in Persia, whose properties were entirely confiscated. Being thus reduced to utter destitution they went out cheerfully to work and in their turn spent all they made for the maintenance of the poorer Bahai families. Love, yea, love must be demonstrated through deeds. Love has never been a passive verb, a figure of speech; it has always been an active verb, an ideal reality. The sign of true faith is the service of the believers of God and service must always manifest itself in loving deeds and actions. . . .
A small business with a steady income is better than the wild, helter-skelter speculations of the financiers.
The mind of a contented person is always peaceful and his heart is at rest. He is like a monarch ruling over the whole world. How happily such a man helps himself to his frugal meals. How joyfully he takes his walks and how peacefully he sleeps!
- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of Abdul-Baha, August 24, 1914, recorded by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Abdu'l-Bahá's secretary and translator from 1912 to 1919; 'Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab'; Star of the West, vol. 8, no. 2, April 9, 1917)