“A moderate independence, quietly and honestly procured, is certainly every way preferable even to immense possessions achieved by the wear and tear of mind and body so necessary to procure them. Yet there are very few individuals, let them be doing ever so well in the world, who are not always straining every nerve to do better; and this is one of the many causes why failures in business so frequently occur among us. The present generation seem unwilling to ‘realize’ by slow and sure degrees; but choose rather to set their whole hopes upon a single cast, which either makes or mars them forever.” (emphasis added)

–George Pope Morris, “The Little Frenchman and His Water Lots” (published in 1839)