goddess of thrift

On Beginning Today . . .

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

--Anne Frank

On Being Rich . . .

"In the sphere of material things, giving means being rich.  Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much."

--Erich Fromm

On the Best Gift Ever . . .

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  --Isaiah 9:6

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  --Matthew 1:21

On a Gift of Greater Value . . .

"A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver." 

--Thomas a Kempis

On Choosing to be Joyful . . .

"Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you shall make your name, your college, the world, correspond to that vision. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings. The great, enduring realities are love and service. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty."

--Helen Keller

On the Buying Power of Gold . . .

"If all the gold in the world were melted down into a solid cube it would be about the size of an eight-room house.  If a man got possession of all that gold -- billions of dollars worth -- he could not buy a friend, character, peace of mind, clear conscience or a sense of eternity."

--Charles F. Bunning

On Giving Help and Comfort . . .

"Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help them both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help." --Mechtild of Magdeburg

On Experiencing Abundance in Life . . .

"There cannot be a sense of abundance or the experience of prosperity without appreciation.  You cannot find beauty unless you appreciate beauty.  You cannot find friendship unless you appreciate others.  You cannot find  love unless you appreciate loving and being loved.  If you wish abundance, appreciate life."

--William R. Miller

On Investing for Tomorrow . . .

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

--Warren Buffett

On the Criteria for Success . . .

"Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy."

--Napoleon Hill

On Enduring Happiness . . .

"The happiness which brings enduring worth to life is not the superficial happiness that is dependent on circumstances.  It is the happiness and contentment that fills the soul even in the midst of the most distressing circumstances and the most bitter environment.  It is the kind of happiness that grins when things go wrong and smiles through the tears.  The happiness for which our souls ache is one undisturbed by success or failure, one which will root deeply inside us and give inward relaxation, peace and contentment, no matter what the surface problems may be.  That kind of happiness stands in need of no outward stimulus."

--Billy Graham

On Finding the Best Part of Existence . . .

"Doing nothing for others is the undoing of one's self.  We must be purposely kind and generous, or we miss the best part of existence.  The heart that goes out of itself gets large, and full of joy.  This is the great secret of the inner life.  We do ourselves the most good doing something for others."

--Horace Mann

On the Key to Retaining Our Possessions . . .

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."

--Martin Luther

On Doing a Lot with a Little . . .

"Kind words do not cost much.  Yet they accomplish much."

--Blaise Pascal

On the Means to Go Far in Life . . .

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life, you will have been all of these."

--George Washington Carver

On Personal Gain and Success . . .

"All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why.  Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself.  It's what you do for others."

--Danny Thomas

On the Veracity of Economic Forecasting . . .

"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."

--Lawrence J. Peter

On an Investment with Guaranteed Returns . . .

"Kindness is never wasted.  If it has no effect on the recipient, at least it benefits the bestower."

--S. H. Simmons

On the Limits of Money, Fame and Power . . .

"No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather."

--Michael Pritchard

On Contempt for Wealth . . .

"Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean riches possessed by other men."

--Charles Caleb Colton

On Creating a Meaningful Legacy . . .

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

--Pericles

On the Problem with Saving Time . . .

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."

--Will Rogers

On Building a Reputation . . .

"All my life, I always wanted to be somebody.  Now I see that I should have been more specific." 

--Jane Wagner

On Seasonal Economics . . .

"To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring."

--W. J. Vogel

On the Power of Hope . . .

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."

--Howard Zinn

On Winter, Adversity and Perspective . . .

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

--Anne Bradstreet

On a Doctor's Formula for Happiness . . .

"Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory."

--Albert Schweitzer

On the Relative Importance of Money . . .

"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the "gotta have it" scale."

--Zig Ziglar

On a Great Way to Change Your Life . . .

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.  Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.  Your life will never be the same again."

--Og Mandino

On Giving a Great Gift . . .

"Every gift, though it be small, is in reality great if given with affection."

--Pindar