The Richest Man in Babylon

'Have I the soul of a slave or the soul of a free man?'

" 'Thy debts are thine enemies who have run thee out of Babylon,'

"Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, too confusing, or beyond a man's training to accomplish.

That what each of us calls our 'necessary expenses' will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.

"Then learn to make your treasure work for you. Make it your slave. Make its children and its children's children work for you.

We found the trail to Babylon because the soul of a free man looks at life as a series of problems to be solved and solves them, while the soul of a slave whines, 'What can I do who am but a slave?'

"Confuse not the necessary expenses with thy desires.

"This, then, is the third cure for a lean purse: to put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse."

If I set for myself a task, be it ever so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?