A penny saved is a penny earned
Meaning: Saving money is just as valuable as earning it.
Origin: Benjamin Franklin never wrote this exact line. The thought was already in George Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs (1640) as "A penny spared is twice got," and Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1737) gave its own version, "A penny saved is two pence clear." The tidier modern wording came later.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Un sou épargné est un sou gagné (literally: A cent saved is a cent earned)
- Spanish: Un centavo ahorrado es un centavo ganado (literally: A cent saved is a cent earned)
- Japanese: 一銭を笑う者は一銭に泣く (Issen wo warau mono wa issen ni naku) (literally: Those who laugh at a penny will cry over a penny)
- German: Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert (literally: He who does not honour the penny is not worth the thaler)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Easy come, easy go — Things obtained without effort are easily lost.
- The proof is in the pudding — Results speak louder than promises.
- Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it — Ignoring past mistakes leads to repeating them.
- The early worm gets eaten — Being first isn't always advantageous — sometimes it's risky.
- Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater — Don't discard something valuable while getting rid of unwanted things.
- Rob Peter to pay Paul — Solve one problem by creating another.
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