Benjamin Franklin

"I was seven years old. It was a holiday, and my pockets were filled with coppers. I went directly to a shop, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, I spent all my money on it. Delighted with my purchase, I whistled all over the house! Then my brothers and cousins began laughing at me for my folly - told me that I'd paid four times too much for it, and described all the other things I could have bought with the rest of my money. I began to cry. The thought of having wasted my money gave me more pain than the whistle gave me pleasure.

I grew up in the world and observed the actions of men. One, a miser, gave up a comfortable living and all the joys of benevolent friendship for the sake of accumulating weatlh. Poor man, I said... you paid too much for your whistle! I see a sweet girl, who married an ill natured brute of a man because he was rich. What a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle.

I think that humanity brings much misery on itself by the false value they put on things. By their giving away too much for the whistle."