Poverty

Nothing sharpens a man’s wits like poverty. Hence many of the greatest men have originally been poor men. Poverty often purifies and braces a man’s morals. To spirited people, difficult tasks are usually the most delighted ones. If we may rely upon the testimony of history, men are brave, truthful, and magnanimous not in proportion to their wealth but in proportion to their smartness of means. And the best are often the poorest – always supposing that they have sufficient to meet their temporal wants. A divine has said that God has created poverty, but he has not created misery. And there is certainly a great difference between the two. While honest poverty is honourable, misery is humiliating in as much as the latter is for the most part the result of misconduct and often of idleness and drunkenness. Poverty is no disgrace to him who can put up with it; but he who finds the beggar’s staff one get warm in his hand, never does any good, but a great amount of evil.