Nicholas Longworth, the Cincinnati millionaire, says—“I have always had these two things before me:—Do what you undertake thoroughly. Be faithful in all accepted trusts.”
Stephen Gerard’s motto was the well-worn one—“Take care of the cents, the dollars will take care of themselves.”
Mr. Stuart, the merchant prince of New York, said—“No abilities, however splendid, can command success without intense labour and persevering application.”
David Ricardo had his three golden rules when on the Stock Exchange. They were—“Never refuse an option when you can get it.” “Cut short your losses.” “Let your profits run on.”
A man who had, by his own unaided exertions, become rich, was asked by his friend the secret of success. His reply was—“I accumulated about half my property by attending to my own business, and the other half by letting other people’s entirely alone.”
According to the great Wedgewood, there was another—an eleventh commandment; and it was—“Thou shalt not be idle.”
Let us string together, in this collection, a few of Poor Richard’s maxims—
“I never saw an oft-removed tree,
Nor yet an oft-removed family,
That throve as well as those that settled be.”
Again, he wrote—
“He that by the plough would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive.”