But it is much more easy to reconcile this measure to humanity, than to bring it to any agreement with prudence. I do not mean that little, selfish, pitiful, bastard thing, which sometimes goes by the name of a family in which it is not legitimate, and to which it is a disgrace; I mean even that public and enlarged prudence which, apprehensive of being disabled from rendering acceptable services to the world, withholds itself from those that are invidious.—Economical Reform (II. 306).
Estimate, the foundation and corner-stone of all regular provident economy.—Noble Lord (VI. 49).
Mere parsimony is not economy. It is separable in theory from it; and in fact it may, or it may not, be a part of economy, according to circumstances. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, another and a higher economy. Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving, but in selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment. Mere instinct, and that not an instinct of the noblest kind, may produce this false economy in perfection. The other economy has larger views. It demands a discriminating judgment, and a firm, sagacious mind. It shuts one door to impudent importunity, only to open another, and a wider, to unpresuming merit.— Noble Lord (VI. 53).
The service of the public is a thing which cannot be put to auction and struck down to those who will agree to execute it the cheapest .—Economical Reform (II. 361).
In all dealings where it is possible, the principles of radical economy prescribe three things; first, undertaking by the great; secondly, engaging with persons of skill in the subject matter; thirdly, engaging with those who shall have an immediate and direct interest in the proper execution of the business.— Economical Reform (II. 341)
We must no more make haste to be rich by parsimony, than by intemperate acquisition— Economical Reform (II. 316).
Malignity and envy will carve much more deeply, and finish much more sharply, in the work of retrenchment, than frugality and providence.— Economical Reform (II. 306).