The Danger of Never Having Enough — Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu contrasts two societies. When the Tao prevails in the world, they send back their swift horses to draw dung-carts. When the Tao is disregarded in the world, the war-horses breed in the border lands. Peace turns war horses into farm work; disregard turns borders into breeding grounds for conflict.

Then he names the inner drivers. There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Encouraging endless wanting, refusing what you have, and always reaching for more are not small habits. They are the roots of personal and social disorder.

He closes with the alternative. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency. Enough is not poverty or passivity. It is a wealth that does not move when the next craving arrives.