Needs versus wants

My nephew (who turns 4 next week) started saying that he "needs" things when we take him to the store. Basically, anything he decides that he wants, like a new train, he will tell us that he NEEEEEEEEEDS it. It is really cute, but at the same time, it is tricky because we want to try to teach him the difference between a need and a want.

I found a quote that I really liked that illustrates this point - it was on a random sign on the wall at a Jimmy John's sandwich shop I was at last night:

If you do what you need to do when you need to do it, then someday you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.

I liked the philosophy behind this quote, so I decided to post it here so I could remember it in the future...