"Hellenes ... think that as men and animals beget men and animals, so from good men a good man springs. But this is what nature, though she may intend it, cannot always accomplish."

"De male quæsitis vix gaudet tertius pæres, Nec habet eventus sordida præda bonos."

"A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just."

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind. And the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart."

"American families are in the process of passing along a $9 trillion legacy from one generation to the next. This is a lot of money, but it is distributed very unevenly.. ... Hand in hand with this money, I submit, what is really being handed down from generation to generation is the profound legacy of reproducing racial inequality. The legacy is difficult to discern because the language of family heritage hides it from our political consciousness."

"Necesse est facere sumptum, qui quærit lucrum."

"Little pains In a due hour employ'd great profit yields."

"Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do."

"As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it."

"No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en; In brief, sir, study what you most affect."

"Men that hazard all Do it in hope of fair advantages: A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross."

"Share the advice betwixt you: if both gain, all The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd, And is enough for both."

"Hoc scitum'st periculum ex aliis facere, tibi quid ex usu sit."

"Lucrum malum æquale dispendio."

"And if you mean to profit, learn to please."

"What is one man's gain is another's loss."

"Whether a transaction be fair or fraudulent is often a question of law: it is the judgment of law upon facts and intents."

"Paper currency, guarded by proper regulations and restrictions, is the life of commerce."

"I have always thought it highly injurious to the public that different rules should prevail in the different Courts on the same mercantile case. My opinion has been uniform on that subject. It sometimes indeed happens that in questions of real property Courts of law find themselves fettered with rules, from which they cannot depart, because they are fixed and established rules1; though equity may interpose, not to contradict, but to correct, the strict and rigid rules of law. But in mercantile questions no distinction ought to prevail. The mercantile law of this country is founded on principles of equity; and when once a rule is established in that Court as a rule of property, it ought to be adopted in a Court of law. For this reason Courts of law of late years have said that, even where the action is founded on a tort, they would discover some mode of defeating the plaintiff, unless his action were also founded on equity; and that though the property might on legal grounds be with the plaintiff, if there were any claim or charge by the defendant, they would not consider the retaining of the goods as a conversion."

"Most businesses require liberal dealing."

"Prudent business men in their dealings incur risk."

"It has been uniformly laid down in this Court, as far back as we can remember, that good faith is the basis of all mercantile transactions."

"A proceeding may be perfectly legal and may yet be opposed to sound commercial principles."

"Persons in trade had better be very cautious how they add a fictitious name to their firm, for the purpose of gaining credit."

"The law merchant respects the religion of different people."

"Nothing can fall within the custom of trade but what concerns trade."

"When a general usage has been judicially ascertained and established, it becomes a part of the law merchant, which Courts of justice are bound to know and recognise."

"Convenience is the basis of mercantile law."

"An universal custom is a law, and I know no distinction between lex mercatoria and consuetudo mercaborum."

"There are many situations in life, and particularly in the commercial world, where a man cannot by any diligence inform himself of the degree of credit which ought to be given to the persons with whom he deals; in which cases he must apply to those whose sources of intelligence enable them to give that information. The law of prudence leads him to apply to them, and the law of morality ought to induce them to give the information required."

"The law merchant is a system of equity, founded on the rules of equity, and governed in all its parts by plain justice and good faith."

"Arbitrio domini res cestimari debet: The price of a thing ought to be fixed by its owner."

"It is the privilege of a trader in a free country, in all matters not contrary to law, to regulate his own mode of carrying it on according to his own discretion and choice."

"Men lend their money to traders upon mortgages or consignments of goods, because they suspect their circumstances, and will not run the risque of their general credit."

"A trader is trusted upon his character and visible commerce: that credit enables him to acquire wealth. If by secret liens a few might swallow up all, it would greatly damp that credit."

"I should regret to find that the law was powerless to enforce the most elementary principles of commercial morality."

"It is admitted that there may be fair competition in trade, that two may offer to join and compete against a third. If so, what is the definition of fair competition? What is unfair that is neither forcible nor fraudulent."

"The great object of the law is to encourage commerce."

"It is when merchants dispute about their own rules that they invoke the law."

"The experience we have in Courts of justice leads us to know that persons who trade without due caution often find their hopes deceived: they find in the result that they have parted with goods for which they never can obtain the money."

"Merchants know perfectly well what they mean when they express themselves, not in the language of lawyers, but in the language of courteous mercantile communication."

"It must be remembered that all trade is and must be in a sense selfish; trade not being infinite, nay, the trade of a particular place or district being possibly very limited, what one man gains another loses. In the hand to hand war of commerce, as in the conflicts of public life, whether at the bar, in Parliament, in medicine, in engineering (I give examples only), men fight on without much thought of others, except a desire to excel or to defeat them. Very lofty minds, like Sir Philip Sidney with his cup of water, will not stoop to take an advantage, if they think another wants it more. Our age, in spite of high authority to the contrary, is not without its Sir Philip Sidneys; but these are counsels of perfection which it would be silly indeed to make the measure of the rough business of the world as pursued by ordinary men of business. The line is in words difficult to draw. . . ."

"The word commission sounds sweet in a merchant's ear."

"Chitty, J., In re Trade-Mark "Alpine" (1885), L. R. 29 C. D. 880."

"The English trader is generally too much occupied with his business to devote much time to the invention of new or fancy words, and he is not always gifted with that degree of fancy which is capable of coining new words. Besides the English public is not so ready, apparently, to buy articles passing under an entirely new name, which may give rise to a suspicion of adulteration."

"An energetic tradesman naturally develops and extends his business. One business runs into another, and the line of demarcation is often indistinct and undefined. The linen draper of to-day in the course of a few years may come to be the proprietor of an establishment providing everything that man wants, or woman either, from the cradle to the grave."

"Some confidence there must be between merchant and manufacturer. In matters exclusively within the province of the manufacturer the merchant relies on the manufacturer's skill, and he does so all the more readily when he has had the benefit of that skill before."

"It is essential, when persons in trade come into this Court, that they should remember that the administration of equity is founded on perfect truth, and that if persons attempt to mislead the public by stating that which is not true, this Court will restrain them upon a clear case being made out against them."

"The freedom of trade, like the liberty of the Press, is one thing; the abuse of that freedom, like the licentiousness of the Press, is another. God forbid that this Court should do anything that should interfere with the legal freedom of trade."