Earn Your Wealth

Steve Jobs had more in common with a hardworking shopkeeper than with Bernie Madoff. - Don Watkins


Ill-gotten wealth is not equal to earned wealth.

Making Money

Americans used to get rich by providing consumers something they wanted, but in today's economy, wealth is just as likely to come to those who produce schemes that appeal to politicians. - David Keene


Your goal should be to make money not just get money. You'll end up a lot happier.

Perfect Happiness

To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it. - Victor Hugo 


Just as unearned wealth does not bring worth.


(Other posts on Achievement) 

Inconvenient Poverty

Poverty us no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient. - Sydney Smith 


Poverty is the natural state of man. It is through his genius and labor that he rises.


(Other posts on Wealth) 

Life's Requirements

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. - Charles Kingsley 


Mental satisfaction takes precedence over physical satisfaction.


(Other posts on Pleasure) 

Spreading Wealth

I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody. - Barack Obama 


It's called Socialism.


(Other posts on Wealth) 

Poor People

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle. - Samuel Johnson 


There will always be "poor" people - people who would rather be idle than industrious. Those which are industrious, though poor, deserve your respect and reward.


(Other posts on Money) 

Real Security

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. - Henry Ford 


Having those things will probably make you as well.


(Other posts on Money) 

Redistribution of Honesty

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne. - Robert Green Ingersoll 


Consider the implications of this in the redistributing of wealth by the government.


(Other posts on Government) 

Priceless Dreams

So I have nothing? Ah, you're wrong. Why I have all my dreams - priceless are my riches when my brain with fancy teems. - Dorothy Snowden


Be careful when you mess with peoples' dreams.


(More posts on Wealth)

Judging Worth

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld 


Not the wealth in their pockets nor the number who recognize their name but the virtue they have demonstrated through their actions.


(Other posts on Success)

Better Conditions

The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. Like the unknown principle of animal life, it frequently restores health and vigour to the constitution, in spite, not only of the disease, but of the absurd prescriptions of the doctor. - Adam Smith

May we all keep trying to better our condition; stave off disease; and make sense of the doctor's prescriptions before heeding them.

Produce Before Consuming

Wealth represents goods that have been produced but not yet consumed. - Ayn Rand

If you consume before producing you are a borrower or a thief. Either way you are not wealthy.

Trust Deceived

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough. - Dr. Frank Crane



My tendency is to trust until deceived. I may be poorer for that approach but at least I'm not tormented.

Complexity Made Simple (or vice versa)

A wonderful discovery - psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they're complex. - S. N. Behrman

You have a choice; make your service appear so complex only you can perform it; or, make the solution to the seeming complex simple. One way might make you more money but the other might be more rewarding.

Real Character

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character. - Calvin Coolidge

And sometimes those which practice them are real characters!

Labor's Bread

A good government is one “which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." - Thomas Jefferson

Remember the government does not create wealth - individuals do, through their labor. If the government is to redistribute wealth then they must take "from the mouth of labor." This is not good government. Think of that when you vote.

In or Out of the Box

Thinking outside the box isn't nearly as productive as building a bigger one. – Seth Godin

Thinking outside the box is great for problem solving. Thinking inside the box makes you more successful. Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, they made the iPod a better MP3 player and it brought them back from bankruptcy.

Airport Prisons

Think of airports as temporary prisons for the wealthy. - Tyler Cowen



Define wealthy; define temporary; define prison. I think you will agree.

Capitalism or Socialism

Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth. Socialism is the equal distribution of poverty. - Winston Churchill





So what would you rather have: wealth or poverty? I choose the former as long as I am free enough to be able to determine my share, with the conviction that each increase in my share will increase the wealth of all (capitalism is not a zero sum game).