In this consists the difference between the character of a miser and that of a person of exact economy and assiduity. The one is anxious about small matters for their own sake; the other attends to them only in consequence of the scheme of life which he has laid down to himself.

An instructed and intelligent people are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one.

I have no great faith in political arithmetic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations.

The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities.

It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense. They are themselves, always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.

Ask any rich man of common prudence to which of the two sorts of people he has lent the greater part of his stock, to those who, he thinks, will employ it profitably, or to those who will spend it idly, and he will laugh at you for proposing the question.