Ben Franklin was one of America’s most influential founding fathers and possibly the most accomplished American of his age.   He was an author, statesman, diplomat, inventor, philosopher and scientist.  Some of his inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove.  He formed the first public lending library in America.  Many of the thrifty quotes below came from his publication “Poor Richard’s Almanack” which he published for 25 years.  Amazing how many of these quotes still hold true today. Read more »

• “Saving is a very fine thing.  Especially if your parents have done it for you. — Winston Churchill
• “He who does not economize will have to agonize.” — Confucius
• “You will never “find” time for anything.  If you want time, you must make it.” — Charles Buxton 
• “Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.” — Samuel Johnson
• “Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
• “We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.” — Henry David Thoreau
• “How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
• “It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.” — Aesop
• “The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash.” — Author Unknown
• There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. — Andrew Carnegie
• The amount of money you have has got nothing to do with what you earn.  People earning a million dollars a year can have no money.  People earning $35,000 a year can be quite well off.  It’s not what you earn, it’s what you spend. — Paul Clitheroe
• There are plenty of ways to get ahead.  The first is so basic I’m almost embarrassed to say it:  spend less than you earn. — Paul Clitheroe
• “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. –   Will Rogers
• Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. –  Elise Boulding
• If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy. - Author Unknown
• He who buys what he does not need steals from himself.  –  Author Unknown
• I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.   –  George Santayana
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  –  Leonardo da Vinci