Enough Is As Good As A Feast

I love this proverb. It reminds us that having just enough of something, is as good, if not better, than having more than enough of it.

It first appeared in an English-French-Italian-Spanish dictionary called Lexicon Tetraglotton, in 1660, and was well established 360 years ago.

To understand the idea behind it is quite simple.

Imagine that you’re starving from lack of food.

It would be easy to want to have a feast and stuff yourself to satisfy your hunger.

But our bodies can only hold so much food, even when we’re really hungry.

At some point the excess of the feast would become pointless.

The left over food would be wasted, and ultimately, discarded, unless its shared.

It’s a bit like how we live today.

We can only eat so much.

We have one body, one life, and can only wear a certain amount of clothing at a time.

We have one face, which can only take so many creams before it starts to reject excess potions.

We have one mind, yet we squander its incredible power on things that frazzle, numb and distract us. Things that take us away from the greatness of who we are without all that.

We only have so much time, yet we often spend it without thinking how much we have left.

Yes, we can always do with more money, but there is, as The Easterlin Paradox highlights, a point at which even more money doesn’t increase happiness or freedom.

It just increases stress and stuff.

We gain nothing by having too much to eat, or too many clothes, or too much scrolling, or too much sex, drugs, drink, or even money.

We need what we need for our “good life ” our job is to work out exactly what that is, and go for that.

The rest is excess to requirement.