'Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
 Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791). copy citation

Context

“Buy what thou hast no Need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy Necessaries. If you would know the Value of Money, go and try to borrow some; for, he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt. Lying rides upon Debt's Back. Poverty often deprives a Man of all Spirit and Virtue: 'Tis hard for an empty Bag to stand upright. And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct, as Poor Richard says: However, remember this, They that won't be counseled, can't be helped, as Poor Richard says: and farther, That if you will not hear Reason, she'll surely rap your Knuckles.” source

Meaning and analysis

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