A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.
[Celui-là est riche, qui reçoit plus qu’il ne consume; celui-là est pauvre, dont la dépense excède la recette.]Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 49 (6.49) (1688) [tr. Van Laun (1885)]
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(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
He is rich whose Receipt is more than his Expences, and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Receipt.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]
He is rich, whose Income is more than his Expences; and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Income.
[Curll ed. (1713)]
He is rich, whose Income is more than his Expences; and he is poor whose Expences exceed his Income.
[Browne ed. (1752)]
That man is rich, who gets more than he spends; that man is poor, whose expenses exceed his receipts.
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
Quotations about:
income
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Why is austerity in a depressed economy a bad idea? Because an economy is not like a household, whose income and spending are separate things. In the economy as a whole, my spending is your income and your spending is my income. What happens if everyone tries to cut spending at the same time, as was the case in the aftermath of the financial crisis? Everyone’s income falls.
Paul Krugman (b. 1953) American economist, author
“The Legacy of Destructive Austerity,” New York Times (20 Dec 2019)
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The art of living easily as to money, is to pitch your scale of living one degree below your means.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
Notes from Life, “Of Money” (1853)
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All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, ch. 1 “Life” (1912)
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