Be ever active in the management of the economy, because the root of wealth is economic activity; inactivity brings material distress.
Moral excellence is an ornament for personal beauty; righteous conduct, for high birth; success, for learning; and proper spending, for wealth.
Accumulated wealth is saved by spending, just as incoming fresh water is saved by letting out stagnant water.
I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where the profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property.
That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and the true reward of its possessor. That cannot be lost; that never deserts us, but when life leaves us. As to property and external riches, hold them with trembling; they often leave their possessor in contempt, and mocked at for having lost them.
The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. (15)