Richest Man in Babylon

George S. Clason—1926.

Lo, money is plentiful for those who understand the simple rules of its acquisition.

1. Start thy purse to fattening.
2. Control thy expenditures.
3. Make thy gold multiply.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss.
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment.
6. Ensure a future income.
7. Increase thy viability to earn.

The richest Man in Babylon.

• I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earn is mine to keep. And so will you.
• “My knowledge of the numbers did not forsake me, and I answered, ‘as much as I earn in one year.’ You speak but half the truth, he retorted. Every gold PC save is a slave to work for you. Every copper it earns is its child that also can earn for you. If you would become wealthy, then what you save must earn, and its children must earn, that all may help to give you the abundance you crave. You think I cheat you for your long nights work, he continued, but I am paying you 1000 times over if you have the intelligence to grasp the truth I offer you.”
• Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed.
• You first learn to live upon less than you could earn. Next you learn to seek advice from those who were competent through their own experiences to give it. And, lastly, you have learned to make gold work for you.
• A part of all you earn is yours to keep.

Seven cures for a lean purse.

• First must each of you start wisely to build a fortune of his own. Then wilt thou competent, and only then, to teach these truths to others.
• If each of you desire to build for himself a fortune, is it not wise to start by utilizing that source of wealth which he already has established?
• That what each of us calls are “necessary expenses” will always grow to equal our income unless we protested to the contrary.
• Each time I loaned it to him I loaned back also the rental that he had paid to me. Therefore not only did my capital increase, but it’s earnings likewise increased.
• Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principle is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail to collect a fair rental. Consult with wise men. Security advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments.
• Desires must be simple and definite.
• The more of wisdom we know, the more we may earn. That man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded.

Meet the goddess of good luck.

• But, when a man playeth the games, the situation is reversed for the chances of profit are always against him and always in favor of the gamekeeper. The game is so arranged that it will always favor the keeper. It is his business at which she plans to make a liberal profit for himself from the coins bet by the players. Few players realize how certain the game keepers profits and how uncertain their own chances to win.
• Good luck fled from procrastination in both these tales. Yet, this is not unusual. The spirit of procrastination is within all men. We desire riches; yet, how often when opportunity does appear before us, that spirit of procrastination from within does urge of various delays in our acceptance. In listening to it we do become our own worst enemies.
• One may attract to himself. From our discussion have I learned that to attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities.
• Action will lead thee forward to the successes about dost desire.

The five laws of gold.

1. Gold cometh gladly and increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than 1/10 of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
2. Gold labor diligently and contentdly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
3. Gold clinging to the protection of the cautious owner who invests its under the advice of man wise in its handling
4. Gold slips away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which she is not familiar or which not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follow the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to its own inexperience and romantic desire in investment.

The gold lender of Babylon.

• If you desire to help thy friend, do so in a way that will not bring thy friends burdens upon thyself.
• Better a little caution than a great regret.

The camel trader of Babylon.

• Being young and without experience I did not know that he who spends more than he earns is sowing the wins of needless self-indulgence from which she is sure to reap the whirlwind of trouble and humiliation.
• Where the determination is, the way can be found.