Other related topics at:
Money
198. Economy
"A woman of fortune being used the handling of money, spends it
judiciously; but a woman who gets the command of money for the
first time upon her marriage, has such a gust in spending it,
that she throws it away with great profusion."
Boswell: Life
Link
276. Economy
"Sir, that is the blundering economy of
a narrow understanding.
It is stopping one hole in a sieve."
Boswell: Life
Link
277. Economy
"Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible
means."
Boswell: Life
Link
655. Economy
"Every man whose knowledge or whose virtue can give value to his
opinion looks with scorn or pity ... on him who the panders of
luxury have drawn into the circle of their influence, and whom he
sees parceled out among the different ministers of folly, and
about to be torn to pieces by tailors and jockeys, vintners and
attorneys, who at once rob and ridicule him, and who are secretly
triumphing over his weakness, when they present new incitements
to his appetite, and heighten his desires by counterfeited
applause."
Johnson: Rambler #53 (September 18, 1750)
Link
670. Corruption; Economy;
Virtue
"Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of
Temperance, and the parent of Liberty. He that is extravagant
will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence,
and invite corruption; it will almost always produce a passive
compliance with the wickedness of others; and there are few who
do not learn by degrees to practise those crimes which they cease
to censure."
Johnson: Rambler #57 (October 2, 1750)
Link
672. Economy; Old Age; Poverty
"The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that
every man who looks before him must resolve to avoid it; and it
must be avoided generally by the science of sparing. For, though
in every age there are some who, by bold adventures, or by
favorable accidents, rise suddenly to riches, yet it is dangerous
to indulge hopes of such rare events; and the bulk of mankind
must owe their affluence to small and gradual profits, below
which their expense must be resolutely reduced."
Johnson: Rambler #57 (October 2, 1750)
Link
754. Economy
"It is well known that he seldom lives frugally who lives by
chance."
Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets)
Link
1,400. Action/Inaction; Economy;
Poverty; Wealth
"The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and
dread of poverty. Who, then, would not imagine that such conduct
as will inevitably destroy what all are thus labouring to acquire
must generally be avoided? That he who spends more than he
receives must in time become indigent cannot be doubted; but how
evident soever this consequence may appear, the spendthrift moves
in the whirl of pleasure with too much rapidity to keep it before
his eyes, and, in the intoxication of gaiety, grows every day
poorer without any such sense of approaching ruin as is
sufficient to wake him into caution."
Johnson: Rambler #178 (November 30, 1751)
Link
1,650. Economy
"A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man,
because he has both enjoyments."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
Link
