Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 193
Philosophical Bankruptcy
Philosophical Bankruptcy is a small handle on a large fact. Grip it, and the fact becomes easier to carry.
It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.
Strip it to the floor and you find an old instruction: look carefully, judge slowly, act decently. The new name exists because the old instruction keeps being forgotten.
The housewife with her kitchen budget runs a tighter ship than most finance departments. She knows the difference between price and cost — one is on the tag, the other is on the month.
Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. You will meet this idea again this week, wearing different clothes. Now you will recognise it.