The Richest Man in Babylon: The Original 1926 Edition

by George S. Clason

I looked about me and saw all the good things there were to bring happiness and contentment. And I realized that wealth increased the potency of all these. “Wealth is a power. With wealth many things are possible.

learning was of two kinds: the one kind being the things we learned and knew, and the other being the training that taught us how to find out what we did not know?

The thoughts of youth,’ he continued, ‘are bright lights that shine forth like the meteors that oft make brilliant the sky, but the wisdom of age is like the fixed stars that shine so unchanged that the sailor may depend upon them to steer his course.

‘I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep.

‘you have learned your lessons well. You first learned to live upon less than you could earn. Next you learned to seek advice from those who were competent through their own experiences to give it. And, lastly, you have learned to make gold work for you.

Would you call a fisherman lucky who for years so studied the habits of the fish that with each changing wind he could cast his nets about them? Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared.”

Truth is always simple.

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

just as weeds grow in a field wherever the farmer leaves space for their roots, even so freely do desires grow in men whenever there is a possibility of their being gratified.

If you desire to help thy friend, do so in a way that will not bring thy friend’s burdens upon thyself.”

humans in the throes of great emotions are not safe risks for the gold lender.

Better a little caution than a great regret.

he who spends more than he earns is sowing the winds of needless self-indulgence from which he is sure to reap the whirlwinds of trouble and humiliation.