Meaning & Analysis
Poverty or luxury involves lacking or desiring many things, but greed or avarice is an endless hunger, wanting everything.
Insights
Relativity of Need
The proverb distinguishes between genuine material want (poverty), the artificial wants generated by indulgence (luxury), and the limitless, insatiable desire of greed (avarice). It underscores that while poverty is finite and rooted in necessity, avarice is boundless and self-perpetuating.
Insatiability of Desire
Avarice is portrayed as a psychological condition that can never be satisfied, contrasting sharply with the more limited, often legitimate, needs of the poor and the ever-multiplying desires of the luxurious.
The Paradox of Wealth and Want
As people become wealthier (luxurious), their wants increase, but true contentment remains elusive. The proverb implies that greed can create a sense of perpetual deficiency even in abundance.
Philosophical Tradition
The proverb draws on classical and early modern philosophy, echoing themes from Stoicism and moral literature that warn against unchecked desires. Figures like Franklin, Cowley, and others invoked it to distinguish between needs, wants, and the bottomless pit of greed.
Cultural and Economic Critique
It operates as a critique of consumerism and materialism, relevant both in early modern contexts and today. The saying exposes how social status and prosperity do not necessarily reduce discontent but can inflame it through luxury and avarice.
Psychological Self-awareness
The proverb highlights a psychological truth: human satisfaction is often undermined not by material deprivation but by ever-expanding desire. Avarice is less a lack of possession and more an affliction of the mind.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The sharp contrast between poverty/luxury (finite want) and avarice (infinite want) brings the core message into clear relief and makes the saying memorable.
Tricolon
The proverb’s structure—juxtaposing poverty, luxury, and avarice in escalating sequence—gives it rhetorical power and rhythm.
Paradox
It employs paradox in showing that those who have the most (the covetous) are those who, in their own minds, lack everything.
Transcription
Quotations
Much is wanting to luxury, all to avarice. To which saying, I have a mind to add . . Poverty wants some, luxury many, avarice all things.
The Luxurious want many Things, the Covetous all Things.
Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things.
Cross References
- See OTTO, no. 226.
- M1287 Much would have more
- P427 Plenty makes poor.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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