The Richest Man in Babylon

"Confuse not the necessary expenses with thy desires.

Advice is one thing that is freely given away, but watch that you take only what is worth having.

"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."

" 'How can you call yourself a free man when your weakness has brought you to this? If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth, even as water seeks its level? If a man has within him the soul of a free man, will he not become respected and honored in his own city in spite of his misfortune?'

Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy family."

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

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

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?'

"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.