Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

The saying contrasts two kinds of “wealth.” Contentment—wanting little and being satisfied with what one has—is framed as a durable, self-sustaining richness (“natural wealth”) because it depends primarily on one’s character and judgments rather than external possessions. By contrast, luxury is called “artificial poverty” because it manufactures new desires and dependencies: the more one indulges, the more one feels in need, and the less sufficient one’s current state appears. In the Socratic tradition, this aligns with the ethical ideal of moderation and the critique of confusing genuine goods (virtue, wisdom) with mere instruments or pleasures. The aphorism functions as a moral warning that excess can create a perpetual sense of lack.