Letters from a Father to His Son

PRUDENCE
London, February 2nd, 1849.
My dear son,
There is no quality which is more immediately important to
ourselves, nor more essential to our own interests and to the safe
conduct of our affairs, whether of business or pleasure,
than prudence. It is that effort or suggestion of the mind which
teaches us . . .
to avoid all extremes,
to shun unnecessary risks,
to suppress sinful expressions and emotions,
to think before we speak,
to forbear hasty assertions which it may not be easy for us to
support—and rash promises which we may find it difficult to
perform;
and, above all, not to place reliance on exaggerated statements of
the supposed advantages to be derived from enterprises which
the ill-founded enthusiasm of others may urge on our attention;
but rather, with judgment and caution, to confine our
transactions and regulate our views by the experience of the past,
than by wild and groundless expectations as to the future.
It is, therefore, that a prudent person is neither convinced nor
attracted by accounts of wonderful cures, of strange sights, of
surprising bargains, of splendid investments, of capital
inventions, of shortcuts to fortune and opulence; nor by any of
the other high flown announcements which, as you know, fill up
the newspapers of the present day.
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