The famous sayings about frugality are as follows:
1. Frugality is enough to maintain integrity. ——Fan Chunren
2. Avoid extravagance and advocate frugality. ——Wang Chang
3. Calmness nourishes the body, frugality nourishes virtue. ——Zhuge Liang
4. Use politics to guard against treachery, and use frugality to save luxury. ——Zhuge Liang
5. If you strengthen your foundation and use it sparingly, you will never be poor. ——Xunzi
6. Be diligent in your country and frugal in your family. ——"Shang Shu"
7. A respectful person will not insult others, and a thrifty person will not take away from others. ——Mencius
8. Those who are extravagant and lazy are poor, and those who are powerful and thrifty are rich. ——Han Fei
9. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. ——Sima Guang
10. Simplicity is the true nature of a hero. ——Eng Macaulay
Stories related to frugality
Su Dongpo paid great attention to frugality in his life. In 1080 AD, when he was demoted and came to Huangzhou, his life was in embarrassment. In order to survive the predicament, he developed a special spending plan: divide all income into 12 portions, one portion per month; and then divide each portion into 30 small portions, using only one small portion every day.
He hung the small portions of money allocated each month on the roof beams, and picked out a package every morning to use, making sure there was no excess left. He kept the remaining money in another bamboo tube to prepare for unexpected expenses. Later, he became a high-ranking official in the court, but he still paid attention to frugality and never paid attention to luxury. He can only order one meal and one dish for each meal. If there are guests, he can only add two dishes. No arrangement is allowed, otherwise he will refuse to eat.
Once, an old friend of Su Dongpo reunited with him and invited him to dinner. He told his friend not to make any fuss. However, when Su Dongpo was invited to a banquet at an old friend's house, he saw that the banquet was prepared very luxuriously, so he politely refused to join the banquet and left.
After Su Dongpo left, his friend said with emotion: "When Su Dongpo was in trouble, he lived very frugally. I didn't expect that he would still be so frugal now that he is in a high position."