People are avaricious, not thrifty. To be thrifty is not necessarily to be selfish, & to be extravagant is not necessarily to be generous

People are avaricious, not thrifty. To be thrifty is not necessarily to be selfish, and likewise, to be extravagant is not necessarily to be generous. Yes, we have to make a distinction: those who throw money out of the window or use up their energies running in all directions are often thought of as generous. No, it is carelessness, vanity or foolishness - anything you want, but not generosity. To be able to display generosity, you must know the art of saving, otherwise when you have squandered everything, what will be left to distribute? To be thrifty is to know how to spend and when to spend just enough and no more.