I am reading Down and Out by George Orwell which is about the author living a poor life in the streets of Paris and London, tramping by streets, passing time with “screevers,” or street artists and drunks. in this quotation, George Orwell discusses poverty with one of his friends, Bozo. This showed me a new perspective, as it showed the unimportance of materialism.
“Well, I’ve found just the contrary,” I said. “It seems to me that when you take a man’s money away he’s fit for nothing from that moment.”
“No, not necessarily. If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, ‘I’m a free man in here'” — he tapped his forehead–“and you’re all right.”
Bozo is saying that in the end, life is all about mindset, and if you have a positive outlook on life everything will be all right. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor. What really matters is mental freedom.