“Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“For age and want save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Never buy a what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“In short, the Way to Wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the Way to Market. It depends chiefly on two Words, Industry and Frugality; i.e. Waste neither Time nor Money, but make the best Use of both. He that gets all he can honestly, and saves all he gets (necessary Expences excepted) will certainly become Rich.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Never spend your money before you have it.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“Just as animals flourish in niches, people who specialize in the business world—and get very good because they specialize—frequently find good economics that they wouldn’t get any other way.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“You don’t need to take the last dollar.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Everybody who is adult should save and not be stupidly spending money and defer gratification to get more later.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“It is commonly observed, that a sudden wealth, like a prize drawn in a lottery, or a large bequest to a poor family, does not permanently enrich. They have served no apprenticeship to wealth, and, with the rapid wealth, come rapid claims: which they do not know how to deny, and the treasure is quickly dissipated.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Money and good manners make the gentleman.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo; as if, after expense has been fixed at a certain point, then new and steady rills of income, though never so small, being added, wealth begins.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Buy what thou hast no need of; and e’er long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Lend money to an enemy, and thou’lt gain him, to a friend and thou’lt lose him.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Society in large towns is babyish, and wealth is made a toy.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Best use of money is to pay debts.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“I don’t know much about cryptocurrencies except to avoid them.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“I have never seen the philosopher’s stone that turns lead into gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a man’s gold into lead.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If you’d lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe, the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If you’d know the value of money, go and borrow some.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn a living at it.”
— Albert Einstein Primary source“Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband, and an ill provider.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”
— Thucydides Primary source“To be rich is to have a ticket of admission to the masterworks and chief men of each race. It is to have the sea, by voyaging; to visit the mountains, Niagara, the Nile, the desert, Rome, Paris, Constantinople; to see galleries, libraries, arsenals, manufactories.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.”
— Charlie Munger Disputed“Money is a tool to be put to work.”
— A.P. Møller Disputed“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt Primary sourceFrugality Wealth Expenses Debts Saving