What good is advice not followed?

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from the defects of the Constitution, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” –

John Adams – From a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1787

Never spend your money before you have earned it.”

From a letter Jefferson wrote to his granddaughter outlining 12 “Canons of Conduct in Life”, 1811

Both men were brilliant. Adams was a hardworking, frugal, lawyer and statesman.

Jefferson was farmer dependent on 175 inherited slaves and an inheritance of 5,000 acres, an inventor, a statesman, and a frivolous spender and borrower.

John Adams died with a hefty estate, Thomas Jefferson died heavily in debt and most of his belongings were sold to pay them. Jefferson failed to adhere to his own advice.