d not think he could do it.

Do you know I have known men who would trust their wives with their
hearts and their honor, but not with their pocketbook; not with a
dollar. When I see a man of that kind I always think he knows which of
these articles is the most valuable. Think of making your wife a
beggar! Think of her having to ask you every day for a dollar, or for
two dollars, or for fifty cents! "What did you do with that dollar I
gave you last week?" Think of having a wife that was afraid of you!
What kind of children do you expect to have with a beggar and a coward
for their mother? Oh, I tell you, if you have but a dollar in the
world, and you have got to spend it, spend it like a king; spend it as
though it were a dry leaf and you the owner of unbounded forests!
That's the way to spend it! I had rather be a beggar and spend my last
dollar like a king, than be a king and spend my money like a beggar.
If it's got to go, let it go.

Get the best you can for your family--try to look as well as you can
yourself. When you used to go courting, how nice you looked! Ah, your
eye was bright, your step was light, and you just put on the very best
look you could. Do you know that it is insufferable egotism in you to
suppose that a woman is going to love you always looking as bad as you
can? Think of it! Any woman on earth will be true to you forever when
you do your level best. Some people tell me, "Your doctrine about
loving, and wives, and all that is splendid for the rich, but it won't
do for the poor." I tell you tonight there is on the average more love
in the homes of the poor than in the palaces of the rich; and the
meanest but with love in it is fit for the gods, and a palace without
love is a den only fit for wild beasts. That's my doctrine!

You can't be so poor but that you can help somebody. Good nature is
the cheapest commodity in the world; and love is the only thing that
will pay 10 percent to borrower and lender both. Don't tell me that you
have got to be rich! We have all a false standard of greatness in the
United States. We think here that a man to be great, must be
notorious; must be extremely wealthy, or his name must be between the
lips of rumor. It is all nonsense! It is not necessary to be rich to
be great, or to be powerful to be happy; and the happy man is the
successful man. Happiness is the legal tender of the soul. Joy is
wealth.

A little while ago I stood by the grave of