of themselves.
Meaning: Literal
Background:
'Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves' is the
kind of admonition to a virtuous and principled lifestyle favoured by
Victorian moralists - the principle here being thrifty and careful not to
squander money. In fact, the saying pre-dates the Victorian era by almost a
hundred years.
In 1747 Lord Chesterfield wrote to a friend saying this:
I knew, once, a very covetous, sordid fellow who used frequently to say,
'Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themselves'.
The covetous fellow that Chesterfield was referring to was William Lowndes,
the British Secretary of the Treasury, 1696-1724.
Lowndes never had to concern himself much with saving pennies. He was a
wealthy man whose life's course took him from Eton to Oxford University and
then to the Treasury.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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When I was little, adults seemed forever stingy. Mom used to say: "When it comes
to money, you can't be too careful." They didn't make much to begin with and
inflation routinely pared down their savings like harvesting Chinese chives:
some years the pound felt like just another penny.
Given the shortage in so many things, it was a miracle that mine was a mostly
happy childhood. One reason might be that most village and smalltown folks were
not well off. We were poor but we didn't stand out like a sore thumb. These
days, things could be very different.
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