O scatheful harm, condition of poverty, With thirst, with cold, with hunger so confounded; To aske help thee shameth in thine hearte; If thou none ask, so sore art thou y-wounded, That very need unwrappeth all thy wound hid. Maugre thine head thou must for indigence Or steal, or beg, or borrow thy dispence*. *expense英文原著 · 《The Canterbury Tales》
Hearken what is the sentence of the wise: Better to die than to have indigence. *Thy selve* neighebour will thee despise, *that same* If thou be poor, farewell thy reverence. Yet of the wise man take this sentence, Alle the days of poore men be wick'*, *wicked, evil Beware therefore ere thou come to that prick*. *point英文原著 · 《The Canterbury Tales》
Yes (I replied), for now it looks as if this art were one which made the wise and skilled possessor of it wealthy, whilst the unskilled, in spite of all the pains he takes, must live in indigence.英文原著 · 《The Economist》
Could I have achieved so much philosophy if, as I ever feared, the closing years of my life had passed in helpless indigence? Should I not have sunk into lowest depths of querulous self-pity, grovelling there with eyes obstinately averted from the light above?英文原著 · 《The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft》
There might be poverty, but indigence was unknown; and because of the absence of fashion, style, and display, even poverty entailed no uncomfortable loss of social position. The Athenians valued wealth highly, no doubt, as a source of contributions to public festivals and to the necessities of the state. But as far as the circumstances of daily life go, the difference between the rich man and the poor man was immeasurably less than in any modern community, and the incentives to the acquirement of wealth were, as a consequence, comparatively slight.英文原著 · 《The Unseen World and Other Essays》