Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son Being the Letters written by John Graham, Head of the House of Graham & Company, Pork-Packers in Chicago, ... known to his intimates as "Piggy."

by George Horace Lorimer

There is plenty of room at the top here, but there is no elevator in the building. Starting, as you do, with a good education, you should be able to climb quicker than the fellow who hasn’t got it; but there’s going to be a time when you begin at the factory when you won’t be able to lick stamps so fast as the other boys at the desk. Yet the man who hasn’t licked stamps isn’t fit to write letters.

It’s not what a man does during working-hours, but after them, that breaks down his health.

some fellows use language to conceal thought; but it’s been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought.

A business man’s conversation should be regulated by fewer and simpler rules than any other function of the human animal. They are: Have something to say. Say it. Stop talking.

Give fools the first and women the last word.

Give most men a good listener and most women enough note-paper and they’ll tell all they know.

Money talks—but not unless its owner has a loose tongue, and then its remarks are always offensive. Poverty talks, too, but nobody wants to hear what it has to say.

A man’s got to keep company a long time, and come early and stay late and sit close, before he can get a girl or a job worth having.

Business is like oil—it won’t mix with anything but business.

Old men have tender feet, and apologies are poor salve for aching corns. Remember that when you’re in the right you can afford to keep your temper, and that when you’re in the wrong you can’t afford to lose it.

when you have been in business as long as I have you will be inclined to put a pretty high value on loyalty. It is the one commodity that hasn’t any market value, and it’s the one that you can’t pay too much for.

don’t know anything that a young business man ought to keep more entirely to himself than his dislikes, unless it is his likes. It’s generally expensive to have either, but it’s bankruptcy to tell about them.

Superiority makes every man feel its equal.

And the only way to show a fellow that he’s chosen the wrong business is to let him try it.

totally agree

want to say right here that the easiest way in the world to make enemies is to hire friends.

And Job’s fortune is one of that brand which foots up to a million in the newspapers and leaves the heirs in debt to the lawyers who settle the estate.

After all, there’s no fool like a young fool, because in the nature of things he’s got a long time to live.

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while a young fellow will consult his father about buying a horse, he’s cock-sure of himself when it comes to picking a wife.

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Never marry a poor girl who’s been raised like a rich one.

marry for money or to marry without money is a crime.

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There’s no real objection to marrying a woman with a fortune, but there is to marrying a fortune with a woman.

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You can trust a woman’s taste on everything except men; and it’s mighty lucky that she slips up there or we’d pretty nigh all be bachelors.

as an example of the foolishness of thinking you can take any chances with a woman who has really decided that she wants to marry, or that you can average up matrimonial mistakes.

Repartee makes reading lively, but business dull.

Half the people in the world take a joke seriously from the start, and the other half if you repeat it often enough.

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but as a matter of fact mighty few men work up to the position of buyer through giving up their office hours to listening to anecdotes.

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Don’t get on your knees for business, but don’t hold your nose so high in the air that an order can travel under

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