Former Uruguayan President, José Mujica, when asked why he lived as if he were poor, he insisted that he did not need to have more things to be happy.
“I am not a poor president. The poor are not those who have little, but those who need a lot. I do not live with poverty, I live with austerity, with renunciation. I need little to live well.” ~~ José Mujica
I am utterly fascinated by this man, a former president of Uruguay. As president of Uruguay he refused to live in the presidential palace, preferring to continue living in his home on a small farm on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Plus at that time he got around town in an old beat up blue VW Bug.
From Wikipedia:
“Mujica has been described as “the world’s humblest head of state” due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.An outspoken critic of capitalism’s focus on stockpiling material possessions which do not contribute to human happiness, he has been praised by the media and journalists for his philosophical ideologies; the Times Higher Education referred to him as the ‘philosopher president’ in 2015, a play on words of Plato’s conception of the philosopher king.”
Not only is he a politician, but he is also a deep thinking philosopher. The world could use more leaders like him.
I pulled this quote from an online Spanish review course I have been taking at 1001ReasonsToLearnSpanish. Below is the quote as I originally found it.
Cuando se le preguntaba por qué vivía como si fuera pobre, él insistía en que no le hacía falta tener más cosas para ser feliz. “Yo no soy un presidente pobre. Pobres no son los que tienen poco, sino los que necesitan mucho. Yo no vivo con pobreza, vivo con austeridad, con renunciamiento. Preciso poco para vivir bien”.
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