116Japanese idiom 四字熟語
足るを知る
たるをしるTaru o shiru
“Know what is enough.”
Word for wordTo know sufficiency.
The meaning
Wealth begins not at abundance but at the feeling of enough. Whoever can recognize "enough" owns something accumulation never gives.
At the origin
A maxim from the Tao Te Ching — "he who knows contentment is rich" — deeply woven into Japan's culture of measure.
The characters
- 足る taruto be enough
- を o(object)
- 知る
をParticleMarks the object: what the action falls upon.
In practice
Facing an urge to acquire, ask what would truly be missing without it.
Editorial note
Classical Chinese origin (Tao Te Ching).
Themes
Similar proverbs
- 301 われ、ただ足るを知る I know only what is enough.
- 296 家は漏らぬほど、食事は飢えぬほどにて足る事なり A house that does not leak, meals that end hunger: that is enough.
- 017 井の中の蛙大海を知らず The frog at the bottom of the well knows nothing of the great ocean.
- 090 我が身をつねって人の痛さを知れ Pinch yourself to know another's pain.
- 223 やれ打つな蠅が手をすり足をする Don't swat it! The fly wrings its hands, wrings its feet.