The individual man thinks in the beginning, “If I could only
make myself worth a hundred thousand dollars, I should be
willing to retire from business.” Not a bit of it. A hundred
thousand dollars is only an index of five hundred thousand; and
when he has come to five hundred thousand he is like Moses--and
very unlike him--standing on the top of the mountain and looking
over the promised land, and he says to himself, “A million! a
million!” and a million draws another million, until at last he
has more than he can use, more than is useful to him, and he
won’t give it away--not till after his death.--HENRY WARD
BEECHER.
(2086)