Meaning of “This is not wealth, but only competence, which…”

The Art of Money Getting, expense-account discussion; Project Gutenberg #8581. This is Barnum’s historical generalization about comfort and spending, not a modern cost-of-living statistic.

Character Building, “Last Words,” Project Gutenberg #60484. In the closing address, Washington warns departing students not to feel superior to their families after schooling and then tells them to go home, live simply, help their parents and practise politeness.

Thrift, Chapter V, “Examples of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. In the chapter’s opening discussion of domestic management, Smiles develops thrift as orderly use of household resources and then calls it the spirit of order in human life.

Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles says thrift requires neither exceptional courage nor intellect but ordinary common sense, resistance to selfish enjoyment and patient self-denial.

The Art of Money Getting, unheaded opening economy discussion before the first formal contents section, Project Gutenberg #8581. “True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go” follows Barnum’s contrast between real economy and penny-wise meanness and leads into his margin-of-income example. The queue parser’s inherited “rule i” hint is not a printed heading in this witness. This remains nineteenth-century conduct-of-life and financial rhetoric, not individualized financial planning or a guaranteed savings rule.

The Art of Money Getting, economy discussion; Project Gutenberg #8581. The road metaphor appears in Barnum’s warning against living fully up to one’s means.