The Cost of Whistles - Living Successfully

“The cost of whistles is a basic problem in society, at least it seemed to have been in Benjamin Franklin’s day, for out of an episode of his boyhood days he exacted a bit of philosophy which indicates that the price of whistles is no small matter in the program of a man’s life.

Among the trinkets offered by a peddler at a fair was a whistle which caught the attention of young Benjamin, and which he coveted. He resisted the temptation for some time; eventually giving way he bought the whistle, paying a price in excess of its value.

In later years the memory of that transaction brought forth this sage observation:

“I conceive that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.”

This bit of wisdom holds good for today. A sense of values is essential to the proper conduct of business and personal affairs.

Overpriced pleasures and wasteful delights are to be counted among the costly whistles. Often their price is far out of proportion to the amount of permanent good they produce and contribute to human welfare. Anything is costly, no matter what its price, if it purchases nothing of importance or worth to human character and the power of personality.

If the price of our whistles are high and the use of the whistle small, the transaction is poor and the person poorer – today even as in the day of Benjamin Franklin.”