知足者水存 贪心着水尽 － English Equivalent?

[GotJack]

Hi there guys,

 

A Chinese friend has asked if I know an english equivalent saying of 知足者水存 贪心着水尽. TBH my Chinese level is not good enough, so I wonder if you guys know this chengyu and can think of of an english version?

 

Thanks

[li3wei1]

glass half empty/half full?

[cachenow]

It means:

 

The content preserve water, while the greedy lost water.

[skylee]

贪心着水尽

着(X) 者(O)

As to the meaning, take a look -

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_cup

PS - OP, so can you think of an equivalent English saying?

[GotJack]

Nooo I can't. In the end I told her, The person that sees the glass half full will always have more than the one who sees it half empty. Although thats hardly a saying. 

[rezaf]

That is completely irrelevant. Read Skylee's Wikipedia link. It's about greed.

[GotJack]

Somewhat of a blunt reply...

 

.. Anyhow I should add that she mentioned in English that her translation was "The man who is satisfied will always have resources, and that man who is unsatisfied will not"  so from that, and someone mentioning glass half full, I came up with that. Also note I stressed previously my Chinese ain't top notch and I was struggling.

 

Rezaf feel free to offer an English Idiom equivalent, which I note you have failed to do (making your reply largely irrelevant considering my op request)

[rezaf]

I'm not a native English speaker so I can't help you. I just wanted to point out your mistake. Wikipedia has a clear explanation. It's about losing what you have because of greed.

[Tiana]

Can we translate it simply as "Less is more" ?

(Or perhaps (in 天啊's style ):  "More than enough is not enough" ?)