What does this quote mean?

“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.”

Respectful treatment is described as business capital because trust, repeat dealings, and reputation often depend on how people are treated as much as on the transaction itself.

Source note: The Art of Money Getting, “Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers”; Barnum treats civility as a practical part of durable commercial reputation.

“The situation was disheartening, but I had energy, experience, health and hope.”

The memoir acknowledges discouraging circumstances while inventorying the practical and psychological resources Barnum believed remained available to him.

Source note: Struggles and Triumphs, 1872 author’s edition; this is autobiographical reflection from Barnum’s account of rebuilding after a difficult business period.

“Something had come to replace his hoard which gave a growing purpose to the earnings, drawing his hope and joy continually onward beyond the money.”

Money changes meaning when it serves a person rather than replacing relationship; caring for Eppie gives Silas’s work a forward-looking purpose that wealth alone had failed to provide.

Source note: Silas Marner; Eliot contrasts the former hoard with Eppie, whose needs and future redirect Silas’s earnings toward hope, relationship, and practical care.

“So look forward to better things.”

The advice resists suffering in advance: when the feared event has not happened, the present still leaves room for a better outcome.

Source note: Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 11, Richard M. Gummere translation.

“I live in the hope of meeting with him”

The speaker continues to wait in hope despite an unfulfilled meeting, making expectation itself part of the devotional life rather than proof that fulfillment has already arrived.

Source note: Gitanjali, poem 13; Project Gutenberg #7164. The “him” is the poem’s spiritual addressee, so the record preserves devotional context instead of converting the sentence into a secular promise.

“hope for the patience to win my freedom.”

Freedom is paired with patient hope rather than anxious rescue, suggesting that endurance and inner steadiness are part of the desired liberation.

Source note: Fruit-Gathering, poem LXXIX; Project Gutenberg #6522. This excerpt completes a prayer against anxious craving to be saved and retains that spiritual context.