Mendico ne Parentes quidem Amici sunt.

Poverty has, at times, the power of destroying even the affection of a parent to his off spring. When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out at the window. In extreme poverty, the mind is too intensely employed in procuring sustenance, to have leisure to attend to the wants of others, even our nearest relatives. When Mrs. Thrale reproved a poor girl, who was sitting, while her mother was on her legs, and employed; Johnson excused the girl, as not owing that attention to her mother, from whom she only inherited misery and want. But poverty is not without its advantages. If the poor man has not the conveniences, so neither has he the cares that riches never fail to bring with them. His wants are few, and the labour necessary to supply them, preserves him in health, and gives him that composed and quiet sleep, which does not often attend the pillow of the wealthy. The wise man therefore says, «give me neither poverty nor riches».

«Would you be free? 'tis your chief wish, you say;
Come on, I'll shew thee, friend, the certain way.
If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go,
Whilst bounteous God does bread at home bestow;
If thou the goodness of thy clothes dost prize,
By thine own use, and not by others' eyes;
If (only safe from weather) thou jeanst dwell
In a small house, but a convenient shell;
If thou, without a sigh, or golden wish,
Canst look upon the beechen bowl and dish;
If in thy mind such power and greatness be,
The Persian king's a slave compared to thee».
(I.Walton and C.Cotton, The Complete Angler)