Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 351

"Why, Jack, if you had your rights to-morrow, would they put your money back into your pocket after you had spent it?--would your rights give your children shoes and stockings when you had chosen to waste on beer what would have bought them? Would your rights make you or your wife, thriftier, or your hearthstone cleaner? Would rights wash your children's faces, and mend the holes in your clothes? No, no, friend! Give us our rights by all means, but _rights are not habits_, and it's habits we want--good habits. With these we can be free men and independent men _now_, if we but determine to be so. Good night, Jack, and mind my secret,--it's nothing but _taking care of the pennies_, and the pounds will take care of themselves."

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 351 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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