Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)Franklin, Benjamin
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Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
And again, Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more
saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more,
that your appearance may be all of a piece; but Poor Dick says, It is
easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow
it. And it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the
frog to swell in order to equal the ox.
Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.
It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says,
Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with
Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy. And, after all, of
what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, so
much is suffered? It cannot promote health nor ease pain; it makes no
increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens misfortune.
"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities?
We are offered by the terms of this sale six months' credit; and that,
perhaps, has induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot spare
the ready money, and hope now to be fine without it. But ah! think
what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your
liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see
your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will
make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your
veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for, The second vice is
lying, the first is running in debt, as Poor Richard says; and again
to the same purpose, Lying rides upon debt's back; whereas a freeborn
Englishman ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any
man living. But poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue.
It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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