"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared.  To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.  We must make our choice between economy and liberty and profusion and servitude."

        "If the nation is living within its income, its credit is good.  If in some crisis it lives beyond its income for a year or two, it can usually borrow temporarily on reasonable terms.  But if, like the spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending, extends its taxing up to the limit of the people's power to pay, and continues to pile up deficits, it is on the road to bankruptcy."

        "It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy."

        "We have been so anxious to give our children what we didn't have that we have neglected to give them what we did have."

        "I've come to see that the things which men give in the way of honor and respect and office and position are really of little worth.  They are not worth what sometimes we feel we have to give in order to obtain them.  I've come to know that worldly goods are of no consequence whatever, save I have enough to eat, and to drink, and reasonably to wear."

        "The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost our money."

        "A wise man will desire no more than he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly."

        "Live within your income. Be frugal and wise.  Pay your obligations to the Lord, your country, and yourself, and then live on what is left."

        "Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt let us get out of debt;  if not today, then tomorrow.  Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes and save a little."