Concept
Frugality
Overview
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent, or economical in the consumption of resources, whether they be food, time, or money. It involves the avoidance of waste, extravagance, and lavishness.
In behavioral science, frugality has been defined as the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourceful use of already-owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The vice in contrast to this is called prodigality (_nequitia_). Frugality, I imagine, is derived from the word _fruge_, the best thing which the earth produces; _nequitia_ is derived (though this is perhaps rather more strained, still let us try it; we shall only be thought to have been trifling if there is nothing in what we say) from the fact of everything being to no purpose (_nequicquam_) in such a man; from…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by
States what Frugality is; names Frugality several times.
The expense, too, which is laid out in durable commodities, is favourable not only to accumulation, but to frugality. If a person should at any time exceed in it, he can easily reform without exposing himself to the censure of the public.
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Names Frugality twice; opens on Frugality.
But all prospect of success in life, or even of tolerable subsistence, must fail, where a reasonable frugality is wanting. The heap, instead of increasing, diminishes daily, and leaves its possessor so much more unhappy, as, not having been able to confine his expences to a large revenue, he will still less be able to live contentedly on a…
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
States what Frugality is; names Frugality twice.
Related ideas
- Yale University Press
- Great Depression
- Simple living
- Puritans
- Knowledge
- Colonial history of the United States
- Walden
- World War II
- Benjamin Franklin
- Henry David Thoreau
- World War I
- Quakers
- Natural environment
- Cicero
- Stanley Hauerwas
Place in the tradition
Part of Hundred Schools of Thought.