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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Emerson attacks rigid consistency when it prevents people from revising judgment in the light of new thought.
Source note: Essay “Self-Reliance”; Emerson criticizes rigid adherence to past opinions when fresh judgment requires revision.
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“If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting.”
Voice: Authorial persona / framed maxim · Poor Richard maxim, repeated through Father Abraham
Income alone does not create financial security; keeping part of what is earned is presented as a necessary companion to earning it.
Source note: The Way to Wealth, Franklin’s compilation of Poor Richard maxims.
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“If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.”
Voice: Authorial persona / framed maxim · Poor Richard maxim, repeated through Father Abraham
Borrowing makes the cost and scarcity of money concrete, turning an abstract idea of value into an immediate obligation.
Source note: The Way to Wealth, in Franklin’s discussion of debt and credit.
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“The more the habit of thrift is practised, the easier it becomes.”
Repeated practice lowers the effort required for prudent behavior, illustrating how a difficult choice can gradually become an established habit.
Source note: Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence completes Smiles’s practical paragraph on forming habits of economy: repeated thrift becomes easier and eventually compensates the self-denial it initially requires.
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“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Guarding inner life is presented as practical because attention and motives influence conduct downstream.
Source note: Proverbs 4:23 in the King James Version.
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“Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.”
Marcus places steadiness inside the governing mind rather than in reassurance supplied by other people, emphasizing an internal source of composure while still writing within a larger Stoic ethic of social duty.
Source note: Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation; Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877. The sentence immediately precedes “A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others,” making the inward-reliance context explicit.