Category Wisdom Explained

The most successful personal-finance idea of the twentieth century was written as a parable set in ancient Babylon — and it is one sentence long.

The most radical definition of wealth ever written came from a man born a slave.

The richest man in Rome's government spent his career arguing that poverty is a state of appetite, not of account balance.

It may be the most misquoted sentence in the Bible — and the missing words are the entire point.

Seven words from the Book of Proverbs have been the core text of debt-free movements for three thousand years — because they keep being right.

The most quoted money advice in English literature comes from a pompous courtier in a tragedy — and Shakespeare may have been smiling when he wrote it.

Everyone knows "a penny saved is a penny earned." Franklin's actual version is sharper — and twice as profitable.

Four words from 1748 became the unofficial motto of capitalism — and one of its most misunderstood ideas.

Benjamin Franklin packed an entire theory of credit into one dry joke: the person who lent the money never forgets it, and the person who borrowed it always does.

It is one of Benjamin Franklin's most quietly radical observations: fortunes are rarely destroyed by a single dramatic blow. They are destroyed by drips.