No ill-gotten wealth possess.
If in thy mansions long thou hop'st-to dwells
For there is no reliance on that gold
Which through injustice enters our abodes.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]
Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones
[L’intérêt d’argent est la grande épreuve des petits caractères, mais ce n’est encore que la plus petite pour les caractères distingués.]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch) Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 164 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
(Source)
Money is the greatest concern for small characters, but is nothing but the smallest for great characters.
[E.g. (1923)]
Concern for money is the great test of small natures; but is scarcely a test at all for those who rise above the ordinary.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]
Pecuniary gain is the great test for those of weak character, but for those wit out-of-the-ordinary characters it is of the slightest importance.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]
The desire for money can go very far in proving that a person has a petty character, but it has little to say about a persons sincerity.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]
Weak characters think money all-important; for any well-bred person, it's a very minor concern.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 129]
That is why I decline to recognize the mere multimillionaire, the man of mere wealth, as an asset of value to any country, and especially as not an asset to my own country. If he has earned or uses his wealth in a way that makes him of real benefit, of real use — and such is often the case — why, then he does become an asset of worth. But it is the way in which it has been earned or used, and not the mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the credit.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)
But to go mad with watching, nights and days, To stand in dread of thieves, fires, runaways
Who filch and fly, — in these if wealth consist, Let me rank lowest on the paupers’ list.
[An vigilare metu exanimem, noctesque diesque
formidare malos fures, incendia, servos,
ne te conpilent fugientes, hoc iuvat? Horum
semper ego optarim pauperrimus esse bonorum.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Mæcenas,” l. 76ff (1.1.76-79) (35 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)
To wake all nyghte with shiveryng corpse, both nighte and day to quake, To sit in dreade, and stande in awe of theeves, leste they should breake
Perforce thy dores, and robb thy chests, and carve thy weasaunte pype: Leste flickeryng fyer should stroye thy denne, and sease with wastefull grype
Uppon thyne house, leste runagats should pilfer ought from thee, Be these thy gaines, by rytches repte? then this beheste to me
O Iove betake, that I may be devoyde of all those gooddes That brews such baneful broyles, or brings of feare suche gastfull fluddes.
[tr. Drant (1567)]
To sit up and to watch whole dayes and nights, To be out of thy wits with constant frights,
To fear that thieves will steal, or fire destroy, Or servants take thy wealth, and run away.
Is this delightful to thee? then I will Desire to live without those Riches still.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]
But now to watch all day, and wake all night,
Fear Thieves and Fire, and be in constant fright, If These are Goods, if these are a delight:
I am content, Heavens grant me sleep and ease, If These are Goods, I would be poor of These.
[tr. Creech (1684)]
But, with continual watching almost dead, House-breaking thieves, and midnight fires to dread,
Or the suspected slave's untimely flight With the dear pelf; if this be thy delight,
Be it my fate, so heaven in bounty please, Still to be poor of blessings such as these!
[tr. Francis (1747)]
But what are your indulgencies? All day, All night, to watch and shudder with dismay,
Lest ruffians fire your house, or slaves by stealth Rifle your coffers, and abstract your wealth?
If this be affluence -- this her boasted fruit, Of all such joys may I live destitute!
[tr. Howes (1845)]
What, to watch half dead with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you; is this delightful? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions held upon these terms.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]
Or, pray, is this your joy? To dread thieves' villainy, the firing of your house, or lest your slaves should steal your stores and run away? I'd ever pray to be extremely poor in blessings such as these.
[tr. Millington (1870)]
What, to lie awake half-dead with fear, to be in terror night and day of wicked thieves, of fire, of slaves, who may rob you and run away -- is this so pleasant? In such blessings I could wish ever to be poorest of the poor.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
Would you rather stand guard, half-dead with fright, and tremble
Day and night over sneak thieves, fire, or slaves
Running off with your loot? If this craven type seems to lead
The more abundant life, I prefer to be poor.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
Staying awake half-dead with terror, living night and day
in fear of ogreish theives, of fires, of slaves who might
rob you as they run away -- you like this life? Of such
advantages I hope I'll always be thoroughly deprived.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]
Is it pleasant, lying half dead with fear,
Day and night dreading thieves, and fire, and slaves
Who might rob you and run? With wealth
Like that, I'd choose to be poorer than poor!
[tr. Raffel (1983)]
Half dead with fear,
night and day sitting vigil on your loot
to frighten off wicked thieves, arsonists,
slaves fleeing after having robbed you.
Does that please you? Of such benefits
I would always prefer to be most poor.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]
Instead, you lie awake in bed half-dead and stiff
as a plank from fear of broad-daylight thieves, dead-if-night thieves, fire, vengeful and fleeing slaves --
is this the bounty you foreswore pleasure for? If so, let me be poorest of the poor.
[tr. Matthews (2002)]
Or maybe you prefer to lie awake half dead with fright,
to spend your days and nights in dread of burglars or fire
or your own slaves, who may fleece you and then disappear? For myself,
I think I can always do without blessing like those!
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
Does it give you pleasure to lie awake half dead of fright,
Terrified night and day of thieves or fire or slaves who rob
You of what you have, and run away? I’d always wish
To be poorest of the poor when it comes to such blessings.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
His wealth: He was very rich, v. 2. He was very heavy, so the Hebrew word signifies; for riches are a burden, and those that will be rich do but load themselves with thick clay, Hab. ii. 6. There is a burden of care in getting them, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account, at last, to be given up concerning them. Great possessions do but make men heavy and unwieldy.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) English writer, religious philosopher Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Genesis 13:2 (1706)
(Source)
On Genesis 13:2: "And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." [KJV]. Referencing Habakkuk 2:6: "Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? / and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!" [KJV]
Often just shortened to:
There is a burden of care in getting riches, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account, at last, to be given up concerning them.
You sleep, gaping,
On your bags of gold, adore them like hallowed
Relics not meant to be touched, stare as at gorgeous
Canvases. Money is meant to be spent, it buys pleasure:
Did you know that? Bread, vegetables, wine, you can
Buy almost everything it’s hard to live without.
[Congestis undique saccis
indormis inhians et tamquam parcere sacris
cogeris aut pictis tamquam gaudere tabellis.
Nescis, quo valeat nummus, quem praebeat usum?
Panis ematur, holus, vini sextarius, adde
quis humana sibi doleat natura negatis.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Mæcenas,” l. 70ff (1.1.70-75) (35 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)]
(Source)
Thy house, the hell, thy good, the flood, which, thoughe it doe not starte, Nor stirre from thee, yet hath it so in houlde thy servyle hearte,
That though in foysonne full thou swimmes, and rattles in thy bagges, Yet tost thou arte with dreadefulle dreames, thy mynde it waves and wagges,
And wisheth after greater things, and that, thats woorste of all, Thou sparst it as an hollye thynge, and doste thy selfe in thralle
Unto thy lowte, and cockescome lyke thou doste but fille thine eye With that, which shoulde thy porte preserve, and hoyste thyne honor hye.
Thou scannes it, and thou toots upponte, as thoughe it were a warke By practysde painters hande portrayde with shaddowes suttle darke.
Is this the perfytte ende of coyne? be these the veray vayles That money hath, to serve thy syghte? fye, fye thy wysedome fayles.
Tharte misse insenste, thou canst not use't, thou wotes not what to do Withall, by cates, bye breade, bye drincke, in fyne disburse it so,
That nature neede not move her selfe, nor with a betments scant Distrainte, and prickd passe forth her daye in pyne and pinchinge want.
[tr. Drant (1567)]
Thee,
Who on thy full cramb'd Bags together laid, Do'st lay thy sleepless and affrighted head;
And do'st no more the moderate use on't dare To make, then if it consicrated were:
Thou mak'st no other use of all thy gold, Then men do of their pictures, to behold.
Do'st thou not know the use and power of coyn? It buys bread, meat, and cloaths, (and what's more wine;)
With all those necessary things beside, Without which Nature cannot be suppli'd.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]
Thou watchest o'er thy heaps, yet 'midst thy store Thou'rt almost starv'd for Want, and still art poor:
You fear to touch as if You rob'd a Saint, And use no more than if 'twere Gold in paint:
You only know how Wealth may be abus'd, Not what 'tis good for, how it can be us'd;
'Twill buy Thee Bread, 'twill buy Thee Herbs, and What ever Nature's Luxury can grant.
[tr. Creech (1684)]
Of thee the tale is told, With open mouth when dozing o'er your gold.
On every side the numerous bags are pil'd, Whose hallow'd stores must never be defil'd
To human use ; while you transported gaze, As if, like pictures, they were form'd to please.
Would you the real use of riches know? Bread, herbs, and wine are all they can bestow:
Or add, what nature's deepest wants supplies; This, and no more, thy mass of money buys.
[tr. Francis (1747)]
O'er countless heaps in nicest order stored You pore agape, and gaze upon the hoard,
As relicks to be laid with reverence by, Or pictures only meant to please the eye.
With all your cash, you seem not yet to know Its proper use, or what it can bestow!
"'Twill buy me herbs, a loaf, a pint of wine, -- All, which denied her, nature would repine."
[tr. Howes (1845)]
You sleep upon your bags, heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to amuse yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are you ignorant of what value money has, what use it can afford? Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine may be purchased; to which [necessaries], add [such others], as, being withheld, human nature would be uneasy with itself.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]
You sleepless gloat o'er bags of money gained from every source, and yet you're forced to touch them not as though tabooed, or else you feel but such delight in them as painting gives the sense. Pray don't you know the good of money to you, or the use it is? You may buy bread and herbs, your pint of wine, and more, all else, which if our nature lacked, it would feel pain.
[tr. Millington (1870)]
Of you the tale is told: You sleep, mouth open, on your hoarded gold;
Gold that you treat as sacred, dare not use, In fact, that charms you as a picture does.
Come, will you hear what wealth can fairly do? 'Twill buy you bread, and vegetables too,
And wine, a good pint measure: add to this Such needful things as flesh and blood would miss.
[tr. Conington (1874)]
You sleep with open mouth on money-bags piled up from all sides, and must perforce keep hands off as if they were hallowed, or take delight in them as if painted pictures. Don't you know what money is for, what end it serves? You may buy bread, greens, a measure of wine, and such other things as would mean pain to our human nature, if withheld.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
You sleep on the sacks
Of money you've scraped up and raked in from everywhere
And, gazing with greed, are still forced to keep your hands off,
As if they were sacred or simply pictures to look at.
Don't you know what money can do, or just why we want it?
It's to buy bread and greens and a pint of wine
And the things that we, being human, can't do without.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
You have money bags amassed from everywhere,
just to sleep and gasp upon. To you they're sacred,
or they're works of art, to be enjoyed only with the eyes.
Don't you know the value of money, what it's used for?
It buys bread, vegetables, a pint of wine and whatever else
a human being needs to survive and not to suffer.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]
You sleep with open mouth
on sacks accumulated from everywhere
and are constrained to worship them as sacred things,
or rejoice in them as if they were painted tablets.
Do you not know what money serves for?
How it's to be used? to buy bread, vegetables,
a sixth of wine, other things deprived of which
human nature suffers.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]
You sleep open-mouthed on a mound of money
bags but won't touch them; you just stare at them
as if they were a collection of paintings.
What's money for? What can it do? Why not
buy bread, vegetables, what you think's wine enough?
Don't you want what it harms us not to have?
[tr. Matthews (2002)]
You scrape your money-bags together and fall asleep
on top of them with your mouth agape. They must remain unused
like sacred objects, giving no more pleasure than if painted on canvas.
Do you not realize what money is for, what enjoyment it gives?
You can buy bread and vegetables, half a litre of wine,
and the other things which human life can't do without.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
... covetously sleeping on money-bags
Piled around, forced to protect them like sacred objects,
And take pleasure in them as if they were only paintings.
Don’t you know the value of money, what end it serves?
Buy bread with it, cabbages, a pint of wine: all the rest,
Things where denying them us harms our essential nature.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the Kingdom of Heaven, but the fact that riches have him.
John Caird (1820-1898) Scottish theologian, academic, preacher
(Attributed)
I am unable to find the source of this quotation amongst Caird's writings (including of his many sermons). While he preaches in places on money and riches (e.g., "Covetousness a Misdirected Worship"), these phrases or ones like them do not show up in his works that I can find.
Nevertheless, this quotation was popularly requoted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, beginning during Caird's lifetime. The earliest references I find are from 1878 --
The Pacific, Vol. 27, No. 17/1366 (1878-04-25) and (in quotations marks rather than italics) The Calcutta Indian Mirror (1879-05-18):
Dr. Caird says it is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the kingdom of heaven, but the fact that riches have him.
It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the kingdom of heaven, but the fact that riches have him.
-- Dr. Caird
Even this point, the references are not to a story about Caird preaching or writing it, but column filler, indicating the quote was already in wide circulation. The use of quotes / italics suggests it might also be an excerpt from a more complex formulation.
By the turn of the century, the quote is fixed as above, and gains popularity in various quotation collections, including Hotchkiss, ed., Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
Citations for this phrase begin with attribution to "John Caird," "J. Caird," and "Dr. Caird," referencing the prominent Scottish theologian and preacher. After a time, only his last name is used. Starting mid-20th century (and as memory of John Caird fades), the attribution is often to David Caird (e.g., 1, 2, 3).
Can wealth give happiness? look round and see
What gay distress! what splendid misery!
Whatever fortunes lavishly can pour,
The mind annihilates, and calls for more.
Edward Young (1683-1765) English poet
Poem (1727), “The Universal Passion: Satire 5,” l. 394ff, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion (1728)
(Source)
Like the Athenian miser, who was wont
To meet men’s curses with a hero’s front:
“Folks hiss me,” said he, “but myself I clap
When I tell o’er my treasures on my lap.”
[Ut quidam memoratur Athenis
sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces
sic solitus: ‘populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.’]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Maecenas,” l. 64ff (1.1.64-67) (35 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)
Such one we reade of in olde tyme, that dwelte in Athins towne,
A man in substance passinge rytche, nathlesse a niggerde cloune,
At whose scarceheade, and covetyce the worlde did outas make,
But all in vayne, he forste it not, he sought not howe to slake
Blacke fame, that frisked everye wheare, and bounsed at ytche eare,
"A figge for them (brasen face) I force not howe I heare,
"They hauke, they hem, they hisse at me, I weygh it not an hawe,
"Whilste I may harbor in mine arke, and lodge wythin my lawe
"My darlynge goulde, my leaves gueste, my solace and my glee,
"He is the bone companion, its he that cheares up me."
[tr. Drant (1567)]
Thus that Athenian Monster Timon, which
Hated Man-kind, a sordid Knave, but rich,
Was wont to say, When ere I walk abroad
The People hiss me, but I do applaud
And hug my self at home, when I behold
My chests brim-full with Silver and with Gold.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]
Since He, as the Athenian Chuff, will cry
The People hiss me, True, but what care I?
Let the poor fools hiss me where e're I come,
I bless my self to see my bags at home.
[tr. Creech (1684)]
At Athens liv'd a wight, in days of yore,
Though miserably rich, yet fond of more,
But of intrepid spirit to despise
The abusive crowd. "Let them hiss on," he cries,
" While, in my own opinion fully blest,
I count my money, and enjoy my chest."
[tr. Francis (1747)]
Self-cursed as that same miser must have been,
Who lived at Athens, rich as he was mean, --
Who, when the people hiss'd, would turn about
And drily thus accost the rabble-rout:
"Hiss on; I heed you not, ye saucy wags,
While self-applauses greet me o'er my bags."
[tr. Howes (1845)]
As a certain person is recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to despise the talk of the people in this manner: “The crowd hiss me; but I applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest.”
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]
As wretched as, at Athens, some rich miser was, who (as they say) was wont to thus despise what people said of him: "Aha ! the Public hiss, but in my heart I say I m right, directly that I gaze upon the coins in my strong-box."
[tr. Millington (1870)]
He is like a rich miser in Athens who, they say, used thus to scorn the people's talk: "The people hiss me, but at home I clap my hands for myself, once I gaze on the moneys in my chest."
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
Like the man they tell of
In Athens, filthy but rich, who despised the voice
Of the people and kept saying, "So! The citizens hiss at me!
Ah! But I applaud myself alone at home
When I gaze on the coins in my strongbox."
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
They're like an Athenian I heard about
Rich and stingy, he thought nothing of the people's snide remarks,
and always said, "They hiss me, but I applaud myself
at home, as soon as I lay eyes on the money in my chest."
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]
As the Athenian miser
Is said to have answered, when citizens
Mocked him: "They hiss me, but at home I
Applaud myself, counting the coins in my safe."
[tr. Raffel (1983)]
Like that one
about whom the story was told in Athens:
stingy and rich, he used to express
his scorn of the people’s jibes with these words:
"The people may hiss me, but at home
I applaud myself as I contemplate
my gold in the strongbox."
[tr. Alexander (1999)]
He’s like the miser in Athens
who scorned, it’s said, what people thought of him.
“They hiss me in the streets, but once I’m home
I stare at my bright coffers and applaud
myself.”
[tr. Matthews (2002)]
He's like the rich
Athenian miser who treated the people's remarks with contempt.
"The people hiss me," he would say, "but I applaud myself
when I reach home and set eyes on all the cash in my box!"
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
Like the rich Athenian miser
Who used to hold the voice of the crowd in contempt:
"They hiss at me, that crew, but once I’m home I applaud
Myself, as I contemplate all the riches in my chests."
[tr. Kline (2015)]
He that is proud of riches is a fool. For if he be exalted above his Neighbors because he hath more gold, how much inferior is he to a gold Mine! how much is he to give place to a chain of Pearl, or a knot of Diamonds? for certainly that hath the greatest excellence from whence he derives all his gallantry and preeminence over his Neighbours.
Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) English cleric and author The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living, ch. 2 “Of Christian Charity,” sec. 4 “Of Humility” (1650)
(Source)
But there’s a class of persons, led astray
By false desires, and this is what they say:
“You cannot have enough: what you possess,
That makes your value, be it more or less.”
What answer would you make to such as these?
Why, let them hug their misery if they please.
[At bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falso
‘nil satis est’, inquit, ‘quia tanti quantum habeas sis’:
quid facias illi? iubeas miserum esse, libenter
quatenus id facit.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Maecenas,” l. 61ff (1.1.61-64) (35 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)
But out (alas) the greater parte with sweete empoysned bate
Of welthe bewitchde, do weene their wants aboundance in eache state.
For monye maks, and mars (say they) and coyne it keepes the coyle,
It byndes the beare, it rules the roste, it putts all things to foyle.
A mann's his money, and no more, wherin confused is
An heaven of happs, a worlde of weeles, an hunnye hath of blisse.
O dottrells dome, and is it so? what guardon for these doultes
Shall we devyse? lets suffer still the foolishe frantycke foultes
To wallowe in their wilfulnes, whose under eating myndes
Is never cramde, but prooles for more and swarves not from their kyndes.
[tr. Drant (1567)]
But most of men deceiv'd by false desire,
Say, Noughts enough; 'cause they absurdly guess
At what men are, by what they do possess.
To such a Miser what is't best to do?
Let him be wretched, since he will be so.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]
But most are lost in a Confounded Cheat,
They would have more, for when their Wealth is great
They think their Worth as much as their Estate:
Well then, what must we do to such a one?
Why, let him, 'tis his Will to be undone.
[tr. Creech (1684)]
Some, self-deceiv'd, who think their lust of gold
Is but a love of fame, this maxim hold,
No Fortune's large enough, since others rate
Your worth proportion'd to a large estate.
Say, for their cure what arts would you employ?
"Let them be wretched, and their choice enjoy."
[tr. Francis (1747)]
Yet thousands, duped by avarice in disguise,
Intrench themselves in maxims sage and wise. Go on, say they, and hoard up all you can; For wealth is worth, and money makes the man!
What shall we say to such? Since 'tis their will
Still to be wretched, let them be so still!
[tr. Howes (1845)]
But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire, cry, “No sum is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess.” What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, since their inclination prompts them to it.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]
But some one argues: -- many men, misled by wrong desire of fame, say no sum is enough, because we all are rated by the money we possess. What would you do with them? Why, bid them live a wretched life, since they act thus of their free will.
[tr. Millington (1870)]
But a good many people, misled by blind desire, say, "You cannot have enough: for you get your rating from what you have." What can you do to a man who talks thus? Bid him be miserable, since that is his whim.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
Mankind for the most part, fooled by its own false desires,
Says, “There’s no such thing as enough. You are worth
Only as much as you have.” And what can you do
With a person like this? Oh, well! Wish him hell and farewell,
Since he's headed that way by choice.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
Still, since false desires fool a large portion of mankind,
they'll tell you, *Nothing's enough. What we own, we are."
What can you say? Say, "Be miserable," for that's the choice
they freely made.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]
Too many men, bewitched by false desire, insist that
"Nothing is enough: people value you by what you own."
What can I say? Let him be miserable, that's how
He wants it!
[tr. Raffel (1983)]
And yet a good part of humankind is deceived
by false cupidity. “Nothing is enough,”
they say. “For you are esteemed for as much as you
possess.” What can you do with one of these fools?
Leave him to his misery. It’s all of his
own doing anyway.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]
But most people
want all that they desire, and so say, “There’s no such
thing as too much: you are what you acquire.”
You can always tell such a man but you
can’t tell him much. Tell him to suffer, since
that’s his choice.
[tr. Matthews (2002)]
People are enticed by a desire which continually cheats them.
"Nothing is enough," they say, "for you’re only worth what you have."
What can you do with a man like that? You might as well tell him
to be miserable, since misery is what he enjoys.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
Still, a good many people misled by foolish desire
Say: ‘There’s never enough, you’re only what you own.’
What can one say to that? Let such people be wretched,
Since that’s what they wish.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
The rich man’s son inherits cares; The bank may break, the factory burn,
A breath may burst his bubble shares, And soft, white hands could hardly earn A living that would serve his turn;
A heritage, it seems to me,
One would not care to hold in fee.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
Poem (1843-12), “The Heritage,” st. 2, The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22., No. 6
(Source)
In later collections, the last line reads, "One scarce would wish to hold in fee."
There is this difference between those two temporal blessings health and money: money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflect that the poorest man would not part with health for money, but that the richest would gladly part with all their money for health.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 225 (1820)
(Source)
ELECTRA: What deceived you the most, what you misunderstood,
Is that someone cannot be strong because of money.
Money can only stay with us for a brief time.
Character is strength, not money.
Character always stands at our sides and bears our troubles.
Wealth shacks up with fools unjustly and then disappears
Leaving their houses after it bloomed for a little while.
But here lay
Thy error; thou didst deem thyself a man
Able to rule, because thou wert possess'd
Of wealth, which in itself is nought, and stays
For a short season only with its owner:
But Nature, and not Gold, is ever firm;
Nature abides with man, and can remove
Evils the most severe, while lawless Gold,
That inmate of the wicked, takes his flight
From mansions where he flourish'd but a moment
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]
Herein lay thy grievous error, due to ignorance; thou thoughtest thyself some one, relying on thy wealth, but this is naught save to stay with us a space. 'Tis nature that stands fast, not wealth. For it, if it abide unchanged, exalts man's horn. But riches dishonestly acquired and in the hands of fools, soon take their flight, their blossom quickly shed.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]
Which thing has most deceived thee, not knowing it. Thou didst boast to be somebody, relying on thy wealth; but wealth is naught, except to tarry with us for a little time. But nature is stable; not money: since the one ever remaining uplifts her head; but wealth unjust, and dwelling with the foolish, is wont to flit from the house, having flourished for a short season.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]
This was thy strong delusion, blind of heart,
Through pride of wealth to boast thee some great one!
Nought wealth is, save for fleeting fellowship.
'Tis character abideth, not possessions:
This, ever-staying, lifteth up the head;
But wealth by vanity gotten, held of fools,
Takes to it wings; as a flower it fadeth soon.
[tr. Way (1896)]
And then the lie of lies that dimmed thy brow,
Vaunting that by thy gold, thy chattels, Thou
Wert Something; which themselves are nothingness,
Shadows, to clasp a moment ere they cease.
The thing thou art, and not the things thou hast,
Abideth, yea, and bindeth to the last
Thy burden on thee: while all else, ill-won
And sin-companioned, like a flower o'erblown,
Flies on the wind away.
[tr. Murray (1905)]
This deceived you the most, in your ignorance: you professed to be some one, strong in your wealth, but that is nothing, except to associate with briefly. It is nature that is secure, not wealth; for, always standing by, it takes away troubles; but prosperity, when it lives wickedly and with fools, flies out of the house, flowering for a short time.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]
And you, Aigisthus, because of your lack of intelligence, fell into a big trap which is that you thought that the great wealth made you important. Yet wealth is not something you can have for long. A man’s strength is his nature, not his wealth because that is what stays with us and that is what defeats our troubles. When the unjust joy falls into sinful ways, it blossoms in the house for a very short time before it flies away again.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]
But most of all,
you were so ignorant you were deceived
in claiming to be someone because your strength
was in your wealth. But that’s not worth a thing --
its presence is short lived. What stays secure
is not possessions but one’s nature, which stands
beside you and takes away your troubles.
But when riches live with fools unjustly,
they bloom a little while, then flee the house.
[tr. Johnston (2009)]
Now here's where you deceived yourself the most: that you had wealth, and thought it made you someone. But money's nothing: here and gone again. Trust nature, it's secure. Riches are not. Nature remains forever, helps in trouble. Prosperity that lives a while with fools briefly flowers with evil, then flies from home.
[tr. Wilson (2016)]
Money is miraculous. What miraculous facilities has it yielded, will it yield us; but also what never-imagined confusions, obscurations has it brought in; down almost to total extinction of the moral-sense in large masses of mankind!
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 10 “Plugson of Undershot” (1843)
(Source)
As for me, I’d like to have money. And I’d like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that’s too adorable, I’d rather have the money. I hate almost all rich people, but I think I’d be darling at it.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer, poet, wit
Interview (1956, Summer), “The Art of Fiction, No. 13,” by Marion Capron, The Paris Review, Issue 13
(Source)
Collected in Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series (1958).
POLYPHEME:Vile caitiff,
Wealth is the deity the wise adore,
But all things else are unsubstantial boasts,
And specious words alone.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]
CYCLOPS: Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God, All other things are a pretence and boast.
[tr. Shelley (1824)]
CYCLOPS: Wealth, manikin, is the god for the wise; all else is mere vaunting and fine words.
[tr. Coleridge (1913)]
CYCLOPS: Wealth, master Shrimp, is to the truly wise
The one true god; the rest are mockeries
Of tall talk, naught but mere word-pageantries.
[tr. Way (1916)]
The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
I could not find something similar to this in searches of Augustine's writings. The usual earliest citation for this wording is Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, ed., Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895). But it previously shows up in Edward Payson Tenney, Jubilee Essays: A Plea for the Unselfish Life, "The Retributions" (1862), though again with no original citation.
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 “On the Overtures of Peace” (1796)
(Source)
The first letter -- on the Pitt government's efforts to negotiate a peace with Revolutionary France -- was written in January 1796, but not published (with the second) until October.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 7 (1.3.7) (1837)
(Source)
On Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil's use of bribery to obtain, in May 1788, an advance copy of a royal edict depriving the Parlement of Paris of its functions.
Nothing withstands the influence of wealth. Everything submits to its tyranny, everything cowers at its dominion.
[Οὐδὲν ὑφίσταται τὴν βίαν τοῦ πλούτου· Πάντα ὑποκύπτει τῇ τυραννίδι, πάντα ὑποπτήσσει τὴν δυναστείαν.]
Basil of Caesarea (AD 330-378) Christian bishop, theologian, monasticist, Doctor of the Church [Saint Basil the Great, Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας]
“To the Rich [Ὁμιλία πρὸς τοὺς πλουτούντας],” sermon (c. 368) [tr. Schroeder (2009)]
(Source)
I don’t know that it’s an issue for anybody but me, but it’s true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually I didn’t wind up getting the money, either. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I’ve never regretted the time I spent on any of them.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech (2012-05-17), Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia [06:33]
(Source)
It takes a grate deal of money tew make a man ritch, but it don’t take but little virtew.
[It takes a great deal of money to make a man rich, but it doesn’t take but little virtue.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw] Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 144 “Affurisms: Gnats” (1874)
(Source)
You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
[KJV (1611)]
No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
[JB (1966)]
No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
[NJB (1985)]
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
[CEB (2011)]
No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.
[Rien ne fait mieux comprendre le peu de chose que Dieu croit donner aux hommes, en leur abandonnant les richesses, l’argent, les grands établissements et les autres biens, que la dispensation qu’il en fait, et le genre d’hommes qui en sont le mieux pourvus.]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 24 (6.24) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
(Source)
Nothing makes us better comprehend what little things God thinks he bestows on Mankind, when he suffers 'em to abound in Riches, Gold, Settlements, Stations, and other advantages, than the dispensations he makes of them, and the sort of men who are best provided.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]
Nothing makes us better comprehend what little things God thinks he bestows on Mankind, in suffering 'em to abound in Riches, Mony, great Preferments, and other Advantages, than the Distribution he makes of 'em, and the sort of Men who are best provided.
[Curll ed. (1713)]
Nothing makes us better understand what trifling things Providence thinks He bestows on men in granting them wealth, money, dignities, and other advantages, than the manner in which they are distributed and the kind of men who have the largest share.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]
Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly (Source)
Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 2 (1858).
He called to mind all the millionaires he had ever read or heard of; they didn’t seem to get much fun out of their riches. The majority of them were martyrs to dyspepsia. They were often weighed down by the cares and responsibilities of their position; the only people who were unable to obtain an audience of them at any time were their friends; they lived in a glare of publicity, and every post brought them hundreds of begging letters, and a few threats; their children were in constant danger from kidnappers, and they themselves, after knowing no rest in life, could not be certain that even their tombs would be undisturbed. Whether they were extravagant or thrifty, they were equally maligned, and, whatever the fortune they left behind them, they could be absolutely certain that, in a couple of generations, it would be entirely dissipated.
F. Anstey (1856-1934) English novelist and journalist (pseud. of Thomas Anstey Guthrie) The Brass Bottle, ch. 7 (1900)
(Source)
To what extremes, O cursèd lust for gold
will you not drive man’s appetite?
[Per che non reggi tu, o sacra fame
de l’oro, l’appetito de’ mortali?]
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,” Canto 22, l. 40ff (22.40-41) [Statius] (1314) [tr. Musa (1981)]
(Source)
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames?
Unlike the phrase in that pagan book, which is purely about the corrupting power of greed and gold-lust, Dante's Italian and some translators make reference to a "holy hunger," a virtue/rule of proper attitude toward money and spending, criticized here for it not restraining humans from the sins of being either spendthrifts or misers -- a nod to Aristotle making sin about extremes and virtue about moderation. See Ciardi, Durling, Kirkpatrick, Princeton, and Sayers for more discussion.
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:
Why, thou cursed thirst
Of gold! dost not with juster measure guide
The appetite of mortals?
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Why should'st thou not restrain accursèd thirst
Of gold, the appetite of mortals lost?
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
To what impellest thou not, O cursed hunger
Of gold, the appetite of mortal men?
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Why restrainest thou not, O holy hunger of gold, the desire of mortals?
[tr. Butler (1885)]
To what lengths, O thou cursed thirst of gold,
Dost thou not rule the mortal appetite?
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
O cursed hunger of gold, to what dost thou not impel the appetite of mortals?
[tr. Norton (1892)]
Wherefore dost thou not regulate the lust of mortals, O hallowed hunger of gold?
[tr. Okey (1901)]
To what, O cursed hunger for gold, dost thou not drive the appetite of mortals?
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
O hallowed hunger of gold, why dost thou not
The appetite of mortal men control?
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
With what constraint constran'st thou not the lust
Of mortals, thou devoted greed of gold!
[tr. Sayers (1955)]
To what do you not drive man's appetite,
O cursèd gold-lust!
[tr. Ciardi (1961)]
Why do you not control the appetite
Of mortals, O you accurst hunger for gold?
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
Why cannot you, o holy hunger
for gold, restrain the appetite of mortals?
[tr. Mandelbaum (1982)]
O sacred hunger for gold, why do you not rule human appetite?
[tr. Kline (2002)]
Why do you, O holy hunger for gold, not
govern the appetite of mortals?
[tr. Durling (2003)]
You, awestruck hungering for gold! Why not
impose a rule on mortal appetite?
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]
To what end, O cursèd hunger for gold,
do you not govern the appetite of mortals?
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
Accursed craving for money, what is there, in
This world, you don't lead human beings to?
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
Why, if all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn’t be enough to go round!
Christina Stead (1902-1983) Australian writer House of All Nations, sc. 12 “The Revolution” [Jules] (1938)
(Source)
Pooh-poohing the idea that confiscating wealth from the rich would provide enough money to the poor. The line is also included in the "Credo" at the beginning of the novel, attributed to the character, Jules Bertillon.
ANNAS: Your help in this matter won’t go unrewarded.
CAIAPHAS: We’ll pay you in silver — cash on the nail.
We just need to know where the soldiers can find him.
ANNAS: With no crowd around him.
CAIAPHAS:Then we can’t fail.
JUDAS: I don’t need your blood money!
CAIAPHAS: Oh, that doesn’t matter, our expenses are good.
JUDAS: I don’t want your blood money!
ANNAS: But you might as well take it. We think that you should.
CAIAPHAS: Think of the things you could do with that money,
Choose any charity — give to the poor.
We’ve noted your motives — we’ve noted your feelings.
This isn’t blood money — it’s a fee, nothing —
Fee, nothing — fee, nothing more.
Tim Rice (b. 1944) British lyricist and author Jesus Christ Superstar, “Blood Money” (1970) [music by Andrew Lloyd Webber]
(Source)
The movie version reverses the order of "need" and "want your blood money." It also turns the last lines into a brief interchange between Caiaphas and Annas:
CAIAPHAS: This isn't isn't blood money -- it's ...
ANNAS: A fee.
CAIAPHAS: A fee, nothing more.
What Nature wants, commodious Gold bestows, ‘Tis thus we eat the bread another sows:
But how unequal it bestows, observe, ‘Tis thus we riot, while who sow it, starve.
What Nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) Extends to Luxury, extends to Lust;
And if we count among the Needs of life Another’s Toil, why not another’s Wife?
Useful, we grant, it serves what life requires, But dreadful too, the dark Assassin hires:
Trade it may help, Society extend; But lures the Pyrate, and corrupts the Friend:
It raises Armies in a nation’s aid, But bribes a Senate, and the Land’s betray’d.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Epistle to Allen, Lord Bathurst: Of the Use of Riches” (1733), Moral Essays, Epistle 3 (1735)
(Source)
Earthly riches can neither bless us nor our children with happiness; we must either lose them in this life or leave them to be enjoyed after our death by one, we cannot tell whom, perhaps by those we would not should have them.
[Felices enim uel nos uel filios nostros non diuitiae terrenae faciunt aut nobis uiuentibus amittendae aut nobis mortuis a quibus nescimus uel forte a quibus nolumus possidendae.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus] City of God [De Civitate Dei], Book 5, ch. 18 (5.18) (AD 412-416) [tr. Healey (1610)]
(Source)
For it is not earthly riches which make us or our sons happy; for they must either be lost by us in our lifetime, or be possessed when we are dead, by whom we know not, or perhaps by whom we would not.
[tr. Dods (1871)]
The riches of this earth can make neither us nor our children happy, if they are to be lost while we are alive or, after we are dead, are to pass to people we do not know or, perhaps, dislike.
[tr. Zema/Walsh (1950)]
For neither we nor our children are made happy by earthly riches, since they are bound either to be lost while we are living or to be acquired after our death by persons unknown and perhaps unwelcome.
[tr. Green (Loeb) (1963)]
Happiness, whether for us or for our children, is not the result of earthly riches, which must either be lost by us in our lifetime or else must pass after our death into the possession of those we do not know or, it may be, of those whom we do not wish to have them.
[tr. Bettenson (1972)]
For neither we nor our sons are made happy by earthly riches. These things must either be lost while we are still alive or, after we are dead, acquired by someone whom we do not know, or perhaps by someone whom we would not wish to have them.
[tr. Dyson (1998)]
For earthly riches do not make either us or our children happy; they will either be lost while we are still alive or will pass, after our death, to someone we do not know or even to someone we do not want.
[tr. Babcock (2012)]
Thou art an heyre to fayre lyving, that is nothing, if thou be disherited of learning, for better were it to thee to inherite righteousnesse then riches, and far more seemely were it for thee to have thy Studie full of bookes, then thy pursse full of mony: to get goods is the benefit of Fortune, to keepe them the gift of Wisedome.
[Thou art an heir to fair living; that is nothing if thou be disinherited of learning, for better were it to thee to inherit righteousness than riches and far more seemly were it for thee to have thy study full of books than thy purse full of money. To get goods is the benefit of fortune, to keep them the gift of wisdom. (1916 ed.)]
John Lyly (c. 1553-1606) was an English writer [also Lilly or Lylie] Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, “Letter to Alcius” (1579)
(Source)
The least vile of all merchants is he who says: “Let us be virtuous, since, thus, we shall gain much more money than the fools who are dishonest.” For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
[Le moins infâme de tous les commerçants, c’est celui qui dit: Soyons vertueux pour gagner beaucoup plus d’argent que les sots qui sont vicieux. — Pour le commerçant, l’honnêteté elle-même est une spéculation de lucre.]
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet, essayist, art critic Journaux Intimes [Intimate Journals], “Mon cœur mis à nu [My Heart Laid Bare],” § 47 (1864–1867; pub. 1887) [tr. Isherwood (1930)]
(Source)
The least despicable of merchants is the one who says: Let us be virtuous so that we can make far more money than those vice-ridden fools. -- For the merchant, even honesty offers a money-making opportunity.
[tr. Sieburth (2022)]
The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.
[Alles in der Welt läuft doch auf eine Lumperei hinaus, und ein Mensch, der um anderer willen, ohne daß es seine eigene Leidenschaft, sein eigenes Bedürfnis ist, sich um Geld oder Ehre oder sonst was abarbeitet, ist immer ein Tor.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther], Book 1, “July 20” (1774) [tr. Boylen (1854)]
(Source)
How deep is evil rooted in the breasts
Of all men! tho’ our pardon we extend not
To him, who, grasping at some great reward,
Becomes a sinner: yet since, in proportion
As he grows boldly profligate, he reaps
Greater advantages, he with more ease
The world’s reproachful language may sustain.
All men have badness in their natures! The one who takes most pay into his hands, and proves bad, gets no pardon; but if he has more pay for greater audacity, he'll endure censorious talk more easily.
[tr. Collard, Hargreaves, Cropp (1995)]
There is evil in all men. Whoever gets his hands on good money and is seen to be wicked, he is roundly condemned. But if he were yet more daring, gaining even greater reward, he would have less of a problem enduring being criticized by others.
[tr. Stevens (2012)]
Money is only a tool in business. It is just a part of the machinery. You might as well borrow 100,000 lathes as $100,000 if the trouble is inside your business. More lathes will not cure it; neither will more money. Only heavier doses of brains and thought and wise courage can cure. A business that misuses what it has will continue to misuse what it can get.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) American industrialist My Life and Work, ch. 11 “Money and Goods” (1922) [with Samuel Crowther]
(Source)
Money was made, not to command our Will,
But all our lawful pleasures to fulfil.
Shame and Woe to us, if we our Wealth obey;
The Horse doth with the Horseman run away.
Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) English poet and essayist
“Paraphrase upon the 10th Epistle of the First Book of Horace,” l. 75ff.
(Source)
A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright The Myth of Sisyphus, “Absurd Creation” (1942) [tr. O’Brien (1991)]
(Source)
Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself.
Apollonius of Tyana (c. AD 15-100) Greek philosopher and religious leader [Ἀπολλώνιος] Letters from Apollonius of Tyana, ep. 15, Letter to Euphrates [tr. Jones (2006)]
(Source)
If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.
(Other Authors and Sources)
English proverb
Sometimes "'twill plague you".
An anonymous proverb, recorded in Thomas Fielding, ed., Select Proverbs of All Nations (1824). Thomas Fielding was the pseudonym of John Wade (1788-1875), a British journalist and author.
In relatively short order, this "Fielding" then became conflated with the more famous English writer Henry Fielding (1707-1754), to whom this quotation is often credited.
Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones; there may be a wide gulf between a man who despises money and a genuinely honest man.
[L’intérêt d’argent est la grande épreuve des petits caractères; mais ce n’est encore que la plus petite pour les caractères distingués; et il y a loin de l’homme qui méprise l’argent, à celui qui est véritablement honnête.]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch) Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 164 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
(Source)
Concern for money is the great test of small natures; but is scarcely a test at all for those who rise above the ordinary; and there is a long way between the man who scorns money and the one who is genuinely honest.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]
Weak characters think money all-important; for any well-bred person, it's a very minor concern.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 129]
The desire for money can go very far in proving that a person has a petty character, but it has little to say about a persons sincerity; and there is a great distance between a man who scorns money and someone who is truly honest.
[tr. Siniscalchi]
You can be young without money but you can’t be old without it. You’ve got to be old with money because to be old without it is just too awful, you’ve got to be one or the other, either young or with money, you can’t be old and without it.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) American playwright Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Act 1 [Margaret] (1955)
(Source)
Money never remains just coins and pieces of paper. Money can be translated into the beauty of living, a support in misfortune, an education, or future security. It also can be translated into a source of bitterness.
Sylvia Porter (1913-1991) American economist, journalist, author Sylvia Porter’s Money Book, Part 1, ch. 1 (1975)
(Source)
Money is always on its way somewhere; we are only a way station. What we do with it while it’s in our keeping will say much about us — as will the direction it takes after we speed it on its way.
Rosalie Maggio (1944-2021) American writer Money Talks: Quotations on Money and Investing, Introduction (1998)
You don’t seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help. I tell you there is no despair like the despair of the man who has everything.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins] Poor Richard, Act 1 [Sydney] (1963)
(Source)
Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author The Age of Anxiety, ch. 6 “The Rise and Fall of Money” (1977)
(Source)
Ah, Constantine! what mischief in the gift —
Not thy conversion, but the dower you gave
For the first wealthy Father to receive.
[Ahi, Costantin, di quanto mal fu matre,
non la tua conversion, ma quella dote
che da te prese il primo ricco patre!]
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 19, l. 115ff (9.115-117) [Dante] (1309) [tr. Bannerman (1850)]
(Source)
According to legend, the Emperor Constantine, having been cured of leprosy through baptism by Pope Sylvester, both showered Sylvester with riches and moved his own capital to Constantinople, leaving the Pope as temporal ruler of the West. This "Donation of Constantine" was fabricated in the 8th century, and first used by Pope Adrian I to encourage Charlemagne to give generously and acknowledge papal power over the emperor. It was largely believed true until the 15th Century. Dante, both author and character, traced the Church's corruption by power and wealth from that legend.
Ah! Constantine, of how much ill was Cause
Not thy Conversion, but those rich Domains
That the first wealthy Pope received of thee!
[tr. Milton (1641)]
Ah, Constantine, what are the many Ills
You have been parent of: I do not mean
By your Conversion, but that pompous Gift
By which our Holy Father you enrich'd!
[tr. Rogers (1782), l. 112ff]
Lamented ever be that lib'ral hand,
Whose gifts allur'd the Apostolic band
To leave that humble path where long they trod.
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 19]
Ah, Constantine! to how much ill gave birth,
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,
Which the first wealthy Father gain’d from thee!
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Ah, Constantine! what ills have we to rue --
I say not from thine own conversion sprung,
But from thy dower, the first rich father drew!
[tr. Dayman (1843)]
Ah Constantine! to how much ill gave birth, not thy conversion, but that dower which the first rich Father took from thee!
[tr. Carlyle (1849)]
Oh, Constantine, of how much ill the source!
Not thy conversion, but that fatal dower
Which the first Father took from the in gift!
[tr. Johnston (1867)]
Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,
Not thy conversion, but that marriage-dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Ah, Constantine, of how great ill was mother, not thy conversion, but that dowry which the first rich pope got from thee!
[tr. Butler (1885)]
Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion but the fatal dower
Which the first wealthy father from thee draws!
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
Ah Constantine! of how much ill was mother, not thy conversion, but that dowry which the first rich Father received from thee!
[tr. Norton (1892)]
Ah! Constantine, of how great ill was mother,
Not thy conversion, but that fatal dowry,
Which from thy hands received the first rich Father.
[tr. Griffith (1908)]
Ah, Constantine, of how much evil gave birth,
not thy conversion, but that dower
the first rich Father had from thee.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
Ah, Constantine, what evil fruit did bear
Not they conversion, but that dowry broad
Thou on the first rich Father didst confer!
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
Ah, Constantine! What ills were gendered there --
No, not from thy conversion, but the dower
The first rich Pope received from thee as heir?
[tr. Sayers (1949)]
Ah Constantine, what evil marked the hour --
not of your conversion, but of the fee
the first rich Father took from you in dower!
[tr. Ciardi (1954)]
Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was mother, not your conversion, but that dowry which the first rich Father took from you!
[tr. Singleton (1970)]
Oh, Constantine, what evil did you sire,
not by your conversion, but by the dower
that the first wealthy Father got from you!
[tr. Musa (1971)]
Ah, Constantine, what wickedness was born --
and not from your conversion -- from the dower
that you bestowed upon the first rich father!
[tr. Mandelbaum (1980)]
Ah, Constantine, how much ill you produced,
Not by your conversion, but by that endowment
Which the first rich father accepted from you.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
Ah Constantine! What measure of wickedness
Stems from that mother -- not your conversion, I mean:
Rather the dowry that the first rich Father
Accepted from you!
[tr. Pinsky (1994), l. 108ff]
Ah, Constantine, not your conversion, but that dowry which the first rich father took from you, has been the mother of so much evil!
[tr. Durling (1996)]
Ah, Constantine, how much evil you gave birth to, not in your conversion, but in that Donation that the first wealthy Pope, Sylvester, received from you!
[tr. Kline (2002)]
What harm you mothered, Emperor Constantine!
Not your conversion but the dowry he --
that first rich Papa -- thus obtained from you!
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2006)]
Ah, Constantine, to what evil you gave birth,
not by your conversion, but by the dowry
that the first rich Father had from you!
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
Ah, Constantine, the evil thrown in the world
Was not your conversion to Christ, but the wealth and grandeur
The first rich Pope and Father took from your hands!
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
Constantine! You set the spurs
To evil, not by cleaving to your new
Religion, but by how, when you moved east,
You gave Sylvester, just to stay behind,
The Western Empire's wealth.
[tr. James (2013)]
Gold and silver are the gods you adore
In what are you different from the idolater,
save that he worships one, and you a score?
[Fatto v’avete dio d’oro e d’argento;
e che altro è da voi a l’idolatre,
se non ch’elli uno, e voi ne orate cento?]
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 19, l. 112ff (19.112-114) [Dante] (1309) [tr. Ciardi (1954)]
(Source)
Chiding the damned shade of Pope Nicholas III (reigned 1280-1303), who was infamous for his corruption, extorting lands for the Church from nobles before giving his blessing, taking bribes, and selling holy offices (simonism); the last has landed him in the Eighth Circle, third Bolgia, with the other simoniacs.
But you of silver and gold have made
Your God: What differs your Idolatry
From that of others, but that they did one
Alone, and you a hundred Gods adore.
[tr. Rogers (1782), l. 109ff]
Go, seek your Saviour in the delved mine.
And bid the Idolater the palm resign;
Thine is a Legion, his a single God!
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 19]
Of gold and silver ye have made your god,
Diff’ring wherein from the idolater,
But he that worships one, a hundred ye?
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Silver and gold ye make your god: what more
Divides the brute idolater and you,
Save that he one, a hundred ye adore?
[tr. Dayman (1843)]
Ye have made you a god of gold and silver; and wherein do ye differ from the idolater, save that he worships one, and ye a hundred?
[tr. Carlyle (1849)]
Of gold and silver you have made your god,
Idols of yours and others to recount,
Theirs to one, to a hundred yours amount.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
Or gold and silver ye your gods have made;
And what is 'twist th' idolater and you,
But he to one -- ye to a hundred pray.
[tr. Johnston (1867)]
Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
And from the idolater how differ ye,
Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Ye have made a god of gold and silver, and what else is there between you and the idolater save that he worships one, and you a hundred.
[tr. Butler (1885)]
Ye've made your God of silver and of gold.
Ye from idolaters what line withdraws.
Save they sin once, and ye a hundredfold?
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
Ye have made you a god of gold and silver: and what difference is there between you and the idolater save that he worships one and ye a hundred?
[tr. Norton (1892)]
A god ye have made yourselves of gold and silver,
And from idolaters what else divides you,
Save that they pray to one and you a hundred?
[tr. Griffith (1908)]
You have made you a god of gold and silver, and what is there between you and teh idolaters but that they worship one and you a hundred?
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
A God of silver and gold ye have made to adore;
And how do ye differ from the idolater
Sav e that he worships one, and ye five-score?
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
You deify silver and gold; how are you sundered
In any fashion from the idolater,
Save that he serves one god and you an hundred?
[tr. Sayers (1949)]
You have made you a god of gold and silver; and wherein do you differ from the idolaters, save that they worship one, and you a hundred?
[tr. Singleton (1970)]
You have built yourselves a God of gold and silver!
How do you differ from the idolater,
except he worships one, you worship hundreds?
[tr. Musa (1971)]
You’ve made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
how are you different from idolaters,
save that they worship one and you a hundred?
[tr. Mandelbaum (1980)]
You have made a god of gold and silver:
And how do you differ from an idolater,
Except that he prays to one, and you to a hundred?
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
You made a god of gold and silver: wherein
Is it you differ from the idolatrous --
Save that you worship a hundred, they but one?
[tr. Pinsky (1994), l. 105ff]
You have made gold and silver your god; and what difference is there between you and the idol-worshipper, except that he prays to one, and you to a hundred?
[tr. Durling (1996)]
You have made a god for yourselves of gold and silver, and how do you differ from the idolaters, except that he worships one image and you a hundred?
[tr. Kline (2002)]
Silver and gold you have made your god. And what’s
the odds -- you and some idol-worshipper?
He prays to one, you to a gilded hundred.
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2006)]
You have wrought yourselves a god of gold and silver.
How then do you differ from those who worship idols
except they worship one and you a hundred?
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
The god you made for yourself is silver and gold --
And where are you different, you and worshippers
Of idols? They have one, and you a hundred.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
You thieves reigned,
Making a God of gold and silver. Room
Does not exist between the idolaters
And you, except they worship one, and you
A hundred.
[tr. James (2013)]
Learn how to cook! That’s my invariable answer when I am asked to give forth with money-saving recipes, economy tips, budget gourmet dinner menus for six people under ten dollars, and the like. Learn how to cook! That’s the way to save money. You don’t save it buying hamburger helpers, and prepared foods; you save it buying fresh foods in season or in large supply, when they are cheapest and usually best, and you prepare them from scratch at home. Why pay for someone else’s work, when if you know how to do it, you can save all that money for yourself? Knowing how to do it also means doing it fast, and preparing parts of a dish or a meal whenever you have a spare moment in the kitchen. That way, cooking well doesn’t take a great deal of time, and when you cook well, you’ll be eating far better meals than you could buy from the freezer, or at a restaurant.
Julia Child (1912-2004) American chef and writer Julia Child’s Kitchen, Introduction (1975)
(Source)
Dore – Inferno, Canto 7 – hoarders and wasters (1890)
You now can see, dear son, the short-lived pranks that goods consigned to Fortune’s hand will play, causing such squabbles in the human ranks.
For all the gold that lies beneath the moon — or all that ever did lie there — would bring no respite to these worn-out souls, not one.
[Or puoi, figliuol, veder la corta buffa
d’i ben che son commessi a la fortuna,
per che l’umana gente si rabuffa;
ché tutto l’oro ch’è sotto la luna
e che già fu, di quest’anime stanche
non poterebbe farne posare una.]
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 7, l. 61ff (7.61-66) [Virgil] (1309) [tr. Kirkpatrick (2006)]
(Source)
On the never-ending labor and contention between the hoarders and the wasters. (Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:
Therefore, my Son, the vanity you may Of Fortune's gifts perceive, for which Mankind Raise such a bustle, and so much contend.
Not all the Gold which is beneath the moon, Or which was by these wretched Souls possess'd, Could ever satisfy their craving minds.
[tr. Rogers (1782), l. 53ff]
Learn hence of mortal things how vain the boast, Learn to despise the low, degen'rate host, And see their wealth how poor, how mean their pride;
Not all the mines below the wand'ring moon, Not all the sun beholds at highest noon, Can for a moment bid the fray subside.
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 11]
Now may’st thou see, my son! how brief, how vain, The goods committed into fortune’s hands, For which the human race keep such a coil!
Not all the gold, that is beneath the moon, Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls Might purchase rest for one.
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Now may'st thou, son, behold how brief the shuffle Of goods by shifting Fortune held in store, For which the human kind so fiercely ruffle:
Since all below the moon of golden ore That lies, or all those weary souls possessed, Could purchase none a moment's peace the more.
[tr. Dayman (1843)]
But thou, my Son, mayest [now] see the brief mockery of the goods that are committed unto Fortune, for which the human kind contend with each other. For all the gold that is beneath the moon, or ever was, could not give rest to a single one of these weary souls.
[tr. Carlyle (1849)]
Now see, my son, how frivolous and vain The goods committed unto Fortune's hand, For which the race will so rebutting stand.
Not all the gold that is beneath the moon, Nor all these toil-worn creatures have possessed, could purchase for them but a moment's rest.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
And now, my son, behold the folly brief of the world's goods to fortune's guidance given, And for which men so struggle and dispute.
Not all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever was, unto these wearied souls Could give one hour of respite or of peace.
[tr. Johnston (1867)]
Now canst thou. Son, behold the transient farce Of goods that are committed unto Fortune, For which the human race each other buffet;
For all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever has been, of these weary souls Could never make a single one repose.
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Now canst thou, my son, see the short game of the goods which are entrusted to Fortune, for which the human race buffet each other. For all the gold that is beneath the moon and that ever was, of these wearied souls could never make one of them rest.
[tr. Butler (1885)]
Now thou canst see, O son, the short-lived day Of good, committed unto Fortune's 'hest, For which the human race so strives alway.
Since all the gold beneath the moon possest, Or ever owned by those worn souls of yore, Could not make one of them one moment rest.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
Now canst thou, son, see the brief jest of the goods that are committed unto Fortune, for which the human race so scramble; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, of these weary souls could not make a single one repose.
[tr. Norton (1892)]
Here mayest thou see, my son, the fleeting mockery of wealth that is the sport of Fortune, for sake of which men strive with one another. For all the gold that is, or ever hath been beneath the moon, could not procure repose for one of these weary souls.
[tr. Sullivan (1893)]
Now canst thou see, my son, how vain and short-lived Are the good things committed unto fortune, For which sake human folk set on each other.
For all the gold on which the moon now rises, Or ever rose, would be quite unavailing To set one of these weary souls at quiet.
[tr. Griffith (1908)]
Now mayst thou see, my son, the brief mockery of wealth committed to fortune, for which the race of men embroil themselves; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or ever was, could not give rest to one of these weary souls.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
Now, my son, see to what a mock are brought The goods of Fortune's keeping, and how soon! Though to possess them still is all man's thought.
For all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever was, never could buy repose For one of those souls, faint to have that boon.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
See now, my son, the fine and fleeting mock Of all those goods men wrangle for -- the boon That is delivered into the hand of Luck;
For all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever was, could not avail to buy Repose for one of these weary souls -- not one.
[tr. Sayers (1949)]
Now may you see the fleeting vanity of the goods of Fortune for which men tear down all that they are, to build a mockery.
Not all the gold that is or ever was under the sky could buy for one of these exhausted souls the fraction of a pause.
[tr. Ciardi (1954)]
Now you can see, my son, the brief mockery of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which humankind contend with one another; because all the gold that is beneath the moon, or ever was, would not give rest to a single one of these weary souls.
[tr. Singleton (1970)]
You see, my son, the short-lived mockery of all the wealth that is in Fortune's keep, over which the human race is bickering;
for all the gold that is or ever was beneath the moon won't buy a moment's rest for even one among these weary souls.
[tr. Musa (1971)]
Now you can see, my son, how brief's the sport of all those goods that are in Fortune's care, for which the tribe of men contend and brawl;
for all the gold that is or ever was beneath the moon could never offer rest to even one of these exhausted spirits.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1980)]
Now you can see, my son, how short a life Have the gifts which are distributed by Fortune, And for which people get rough with one another:
So that all the gold there is beneath the moon And all there ever was, could never give A moment's rest to one of these tired souls.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
Now you can see, my son, how ludicrous And brief are all the goods in Fortune's ken, Which humankind contend for: you see from this
How all the gold there is beneath the moon, Or that there ever was, could not relieve One of these weary souls.
[tr. Pinsky (1994), l. 55ff]
Now you can see, my son, the brief mockery of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race so squabbles;
for all the gold that is under the moon and that ever was, could not give rest to even one of these weary souls.
[tr. Durling (1996)]
But you, my son, can see now the vain mockery of the wealth controlled by Fortune, for which the human race fight with each other, since all the gold under the moon, that ever was, could not give peace to one of these weary souls.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
Now you see, my son, what brief mockery Fortune makes of goods we trust her with, for which the race of men embroil themselves.
All the gold that lies beneath the moon, or ever did, could never give a moment's rest to any of these wearied souls.
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
Now see, my son, the futile mockery Of spending a life accumulating possessions, Competing with fortune and men for worthless frippery:
Take all the gold still lying under the moon, Add all that ever was and you could not buy A moment of rest for one of these souls -- not one.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
You see it clear,
My son: the squalid fraud as brief as life
Of goods consigned to Fortune, whereupon
Cool heads come to the boil, hands to the knife.
For all the gold there is, and all that's gone,
Would give no shred of peace to even one
Of these drained souls.
[tr. James (2013), l. 56ff]
NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system:
Two Farthings = One Ha’penny. Two Ha’pennies = One Penny. Three Pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.
The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
A conservative is a man who has plenty of money and doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-03-26), “Weekly Article: We’re Off to a Flying Start”
(Source)
Collected in Steven Grager, ed., Will Rogers' Weekly Articles, Vol. 6 "The Roosevelt Years, 1933-1935" (2011 ed.). Also reprinted in abbreviated format, in Donald Day, ed., The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).
When citizens are relatively equal, politics has tended to be fairly democratic. When a few individuals hold enormous amounts of wealth, democracy suffers. The reason for this pattern is simple. Through campaign contributions, lobbying, influence over public discourse, and other means, wealth can be translated into political power. When wealth is highly concentrated — that is, when a few individuals have enormous amounts of money — political power tends to be highly concentrated, too. The wealthy few tend to rule. Average citizens lose political power. Democracy declines.
Benjamin I. Page (b. 1940) American political scientist, academic, researcher Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It, Part 1, ch. 2 (2017) [with Martin Gilens]
(Source)
There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.
Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71) Griffin v. Illinois, 351 US 12, 19 (1956) [majority opinion]
(Source)
On the Constitutional requirement for states to ensure not only that trial defense is available to poor defendants, but that appeals costs be addressed as well.
You see we make our writers into something very strange. […] We destroy them in many ways. First, economically. They make money. It is only by hazard that a writer makes money although good books always make money eventually. Then our writers when they have made some money increase their style of living and are caught. They have to write to keep up their establishment, their wives, and so on, and they write slop. It is slop not on purpose but because it is hurried. Because they are ambitious. Then, once they have betrayed themselves, they justify it and you get more slop. Or else they read the critics. If they believe the critics when they say they are great then they must believe them when they say they are rotten and they lose confidence. At present we have two good writers who cannot write because they have lost confidence through reading the critics. If they wrote, sometimes it would be good and sometimes not so good and sometimes it would be quite bad, but the good would get out. But they have read the critics, and they must write masterpieces. The masterpieces the critics said they wrote. They weren’t masterpieces, of course. They were just quite good books. So now they cannot write at all. The critics have made them impotent.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer Green Hills of Africa, ch. 1 (1935)
(Source)
Books are one of the few things men cherish deeply. And the better the man, the more easily will he part with his most cherished possessions. A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum — of both books and money. But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money.
Henry Miller (1891-1980) American novelist The Books in My Life, ch. 1 (1952)
(Source)
The life of making money is a life people are, as it were, forced into, and wealth is clearly not the good we are seeking, since it is merely useful, for getting something else.
Rackham notes the term βίαιος (translated under compulsion/constraint) is "literally ‘violent’; the adjective is applied to the strict diet and and laborious exercises of athletes, and to physical phenomena such as motion, in the sense of ‘constrained,’ ‘not natural.’"
As for the life of money-making, it is one of constraint, and wealth manifestly is not the good we are seeking, because it is for use, that is, for the sake of something further.
[tr. Chase (1847), ch. 3]
As for the money-getting life, it violates the natural fitness of things. Wealth is clearly not the absolute good of which we are in search, for it is a utility, and nonly desirable as a means.
[tr. Williams (1869)]
The life of money-making is in a sense a life of constraint, and it is clear that wealth is not the good of which we are in quest; for it is useful in part as a means to something else.
[tr. Welldon (1892), ch. 3]
As for the money-making life, it is something quite contrary to nature; and wealth evidently is not the good of which we are in search, for it is merely useful as a means to something else.
[tr. Peters (1893)]
The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.
[tr. Ross (1908)]
The Life of Money-making is a constrained kind of life, and clearly wealth is not the Good we are in search of, for it is only good as being useful, a means to something else.
[tr. Rackham (1934), 1.5.8]
The life of a moneymaker is in a way forced, and wealth is clearly not the good we are looking for, since it was useful and for the sake of something else.
[tr. Reeve (1948), ch. 5]
As for the life of a money-maker, it is one of tension; and clearly the good sought is not wealth, for wealth is instrumental and is sought for the sake of something else.
[tr. Apostle (1975), ch. 3]
As for the life of the businessman, it does not give him much freedom of action. Besides, wealth is obviously not the good that we are seeking, because it serves only as a means; i.e., for getting something else.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]
The moneymaking life is characterized by a certain constraint, and it is clear that wealth is not the good being sought, for it is a useful thing and for the sake of something else.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]
Preacher preaching love like vengeance
Preaching love like hate
Calling for large donations
Promising estates
Rolling lawns and angel bands
Behind the pearly gates
You know he will have his in this life
But yours will have to wait
He’s immaculately tax free
Joni Mitchell (b. 1943) Canadian singer-songwriter and painter [b. Roberta Joan Anderson]
“Tax Free” Joni Mitchell (1985)
(Source)
A thief can rifle any till, A fire with ash your home can fill,
A creditor calls in your debt. Bad harvest does your farm upset,
An impish mistress robs your dwelling, Storm shatters ships with water swelling.
But gifts to friends your friendships save. You keep thus always what you gave.
[Callidus effracta nummos fur auferet arca,
Prosternet patrios impia flamma lares:
Debitor usuram pariter sortemque negabit,
Non reddet sterilis semina iacta seges:
Dispensatorem fallax spoliabit amica,
Mercibus extructas obruet unda rates.
Extra fortunam est, quidquid donatur amicis:
Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes.]
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis] Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 5, epigram 42 (5.42) (AD 90) [tr. Wills (2007)]
(Source)
The crafty thefe from battered chest, doth filch thy coine awaie:
The debter nor the interest, nor principall will pay.
The fearefull flame destroies the goods, and letteth nought remaine:
The barren ground for seede recevd, restoreth naught again.
The subtle harlot naked strips her lover to the skin:
If thou commit thy self to seas, great danger art thou in.
Not that thou gevest to thy frend, can fortune take away:
That onely that thou givst thy friend, thou shalt posses for ay.
[tr. Kendall (1577)]
Thieves may thy Coffers breake, steale coyne or plate; Thy house a sudden fire may ruinate.
Debtors may Use, and Principall deny, And dead thy seedes in barren Grounds may lye:
Thy Steward may be cheated by a Whore; Thy Merchandise the Ocean may devour.
But what thou giv'st thy friends, from chance is free. Thy gifts alone shall thine for ever be.
[tr. May (1629)]
Some felon-hand may steal thy gold away; Or flames destructive on thy mansion prey.
The fraudful debtor may thy loan deny; Or blasted fields no more their fruits supply.
The am'rous steward to adorn his dear, With spoils may deck her from thy plunder'd year.
Thy freighted vessels, ere the port they gain, O'erwhelm'd by storms may sink beneath the main:
But what thou giv'st a friend for friendship's sake, Is the sole wealth which fortune n'er can take.
[tr. Melmoth (c. 1750)]
Thieves may break locks, and with your cash retire; Your ancient seat may be consumed by fire;
Debtors refuse to pay you what they owe; Or your ungrateful field the seed you sow;
You may be plundered by a jilting whore; Your ships may sink at sea with all their store:
Who gives to friends, so much from Fate secures; That is the only wealth for ever yours.
[tr. Hay (1755), ep. 43]
The thief shall burst thy box, and slyly go: The impious flame shall lay thy Lares low.
Thy dettor shall deny both use and sum: Thy seed deposited may never come.
A faithless female shall they steward spoil: They ships are swallow'd, while thy billow boil.
Whate'er is bountied, quit vain fortune's road: Thine is alone the wealth thou has bestow'd.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Book 5, ep. 82]
A crafty thief may purloin money from a chest;
an impious flame may destroy paternal Lares;
a debtor may deny both principal and interest;
land may not yield crops in return for the seed scattered upon it;
frauds may be practices on a steward entrusted with your household purse;
the sea may overwhelm ships laden with merchandise.
Whatever is given to friends is beyond the reach of Fortune;
the wealth you have bestowed is the only wealth you can keep.
[tr. Amos (1858), ch. 3, ep. 77]
A cunning thief may burst open your coffers, and steal your coin;
an impious fire may lay waste your ancestral home;
your debtor may refuse you both principal and interest;
your corn-field may prove barren, and not repay the seed you have scattered upon it;
a crafty mistress may rob your steward;
the waves may engulf your ships laden with merchandise.
But what is bestowed on your friends is beyond the reach of fortune;
the riches you give away are the only riches you will possess for ever.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]
A present to a friend's beyond the reach of fortune:
That wealth alone you always will possess
Which you have given away.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]
A cunning thief will break your money-box and carry off your coin,
cruel fire will lay low your ancestral home;
your debtor will repudiate interest alike and principal,
your sterile crop will not return you the seed you have sown;
a false mistress will despoil your treasurer,
the wave will overwhelm your ships stored with merchandise.
Beyond Fortune's power is any gift made to your friends;
only wealth bestowed will you possess always.
[tr. Ker (1919)]
Some thief may steal your wealth away,
Although by massive walls surrounded;
Or ruthless fire in ashes lay The ancient home your fathers founded;
A debtor may withhold your dues,
Deny perhaps a debt is owing,
Or sullen ploughlands may refuse To yield a harvest to your sowing.
A cunning trollop of the town
May make your agent rob his master,
Or waters of the ocean drown Your goods and ship in one disaster.
But give to friends whate'er you may,
'Tis safe from fortune's worst endeavor:
The riches that you give away, These only shall be yours for ever.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]
Some cunning burglar will abstract your plate, A godless fire your roof will devastate,
A debtor steal both interest and loan, A barren field will turn your seed to stone.
A wily wench will strip your steward bare, The greedy sea engulf your galleon's ware.
Give to a friend and fortune is checkmated; Such wealth will ever as your own be rated.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924), #247]
A cunning thief may rob your money-chest,
And cruel fire lay low an ancient home;
Debtors may keep both loan and interest; Good seed may fruitless rot in barren loam.
A guileful mistress may your agent cheat,
And waves engulf your laden argosies;
But boons to friends can fortune's slings defeat: The wealth you give away will never cease.
[tr. Duff (1929)]
A cunning thief will break open your coffer and carry off your money, ruthless fire will lay low your family horne, your debtor will repudiate interest and principal alike, your barren fields will not return the scattered seed, a tricky mistress will rob your steward, the wave ,will overwhelm your ships piled high with merchandise: hut whatever is given to friends is beyond the grasp of Fortune. Only the wealth you give away will always be yours.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]
Deft thieves can break your locks and carry off your savings,
fire consume your home,
debtors default on principal and interest,
failed crops return not even the seed you'd sown,
cheating women run up your charge accounts,
storm overwhelm ships freighted with all your goods.
Fortune can't take away what you give your friends:
that wealth stays yours forever.
[tr. Powell (c. 2000)]
The only wealth that's yours forever
is the wealth you give away.
[tr. Kennelly (2008), "Forever"]
Sly thieves will smash your coffer and steal your cash;
impious flames will wreck your family home;
your debtor won't repay your loan or interest; your barren fields will yield less than you've sown;
a crafty mistress will despoil your steward;
a wave will swamp your ships piled high with stores.
But what you give to friends is safe from Fortune: only the wealth you give away is yours.
[tr. McLean (2014)]
Savings -- the cunning thief will crack your safe and steal them;
ancestral home -- the fires don't care, they'll trash it;
the guy who owes you money -- won't pay the interest, won't pay at all.
Your field -- it's barren, sow seed and you'll get no return;
your girlfriend -- she'll con your accountant and leave you penniless;
your shipping line -- the waves will swamp your stacks of cargo.
But what you give to friends is out of fortune's reach.
The wealth you give away is the only wealth you'll never lose.
[tr. Nisbet (2015)]
Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 78 (Diels) [tr. @sententiq (2018)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Diels citation "78. (74 N.) DEMOKRATES. 43."; collected in Joannes Stobaeus (Stobaios) Anthologium 4, 31, 21. Bakewell lists this under "The Golden Sayings of Democritus." Freeman notes this as one of the Gnômae, from a collection called "Maxims of Democratês," but because Stobaeus quotes many of these as "Maxims of Democritus," they are generally attributed to the latter. Alternate translations:
"Making money is not without its value, but nothing is baser than to make it by wrong-doing." [tr. Bakewell (1907)]
"To make money is not without use, but if it comes from wrong-doing, nothing is worse." [tr. Freeman (1948)]
For my part, I prefer a man without money to money without a man.
[Ego vero, malo virum, qui pecunia egeat, quam pecuniam, quae viro.]
Themistocles (c. 524-459 BC) Athenian politician and general
Quoted in Cicero, De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 2, ch. 20 / sec. 71 (44 BC) [tr. Miller (1913)]
(Source)
Original Latin (of Cicero). When asked whether he would choose for his daughter a poor but honest husband or a wealthy but disreputable one.
Alternate translations:
"I had rather have a man without an estate, than to have an estate without a man." [tr. Cockman (1699)]
"I would rather have a man without money, than money without a man." [tr. McCartney (1798)]
"I certainly would rather she married a man without money, than money without a man." [tr. Edmonds (1865)]
"I, indeed, prefer the man who lacks money to the money that lacks a man." [tr. Peabody (1883)]
The comment is also recorded in Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Themistocles," ch. 18, sec. 5 [tr. Dryden (1653), rev. Clough (1859)]:
Of two who made love to his daughter, he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he desired a man without riches, rather than riches without a man.
"When two men paid their addresses to his daughter, he chose the more agreeable instead of the richer of the two, saying that he preferred a man without money to money without a man." [tr. Stewart/Long (1894)]
"Of two suitors for his daughter's hand, he chose the likely man in preference to the rich man, saying that he wanted a man without money rather than money without a man." [tr. Perrin (1914)]
Our political system has been thoroughly corrupted, and by the usual suspect — money, what else? The corruption is open, obscene, and unmistakable. The way campaigns are financed is a system of legalized bribery. We have a government of special interests, by special interests, and for special interests. And that will not change until we change the way campaigns are financed.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins] You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You, Introduction (1998)
(Source)
The ability of the rich and their acolytes to see social virtue in what serves their interest and convenience and to depict as ridiculous or foolish what does not was never better manifested than in their support of gold and their condemnation of paper money.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went, ch. 9 (1975)
(Source)
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
Thomas Sowell (b. 1930) American economist and political commentator
“Student Loans,” Is Reality Optional? (1993)
(Source)
Hence the lust for money first, then for power, grew upon them; these were, I may say, the root of all evils. For avarice destroyed honour, integrity, and all the other noble qualities; taught in their place insolence, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to set a price on everything. Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue; to value friendships and enmities not on their merits but by the standard of self-interest, and to show a good front rather than a good heart. At first these vices grew slowly, from time to time they were punished; finally, when the disease had spread like a deadly plague, the state was changed and a government second to none in equity and excellence became cruel and intolerable.
[Igitur primo imperi, deinde pecuniae cupido crevit: ea quasi materies omnium malorum fuere. Namque avaritia fidem, probitatem ceterasque artis bonas subvortit; pro his superbiam, crudelitatem, deos neglegere, omnia venalia habere edocuit. Ambitio multos mortalis falsos fieri subegit, aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum habere, amicitias inimicitiasque non ex re, sed ex commodo aestumare magisque voltum quam ingenium bonum habere. Haec primo paulatim crescere, interdum vindicari; post, ubi contagio quasi pestilentia invasit, civitas inmutata, imperium ex iustissumo atque optumo crudele intolerandumque factum.]
Sallust (c. 86-35 BC) Roman historian and politician [Gaius Sallustius Crispus] Bellum Catilinae [The War of Catiline; The Conspiracy of Catiline], ch. 10, sent. 3-6 [tr. Rolfe (1931)]
(Source)
Discussing the corruption of Rome in the years after the final defeat of Carthage.
Alt. trans.:
"A love of money, and a lust for power, took possession of every mind. These hateful passions were the source of innumerable evils. Good faith, integrity, and every virtuous principle, gave way to avarice; and in the room of moral honesty, pride, cruelty, and contempt of the gods succeeded. Corruption and venality were introduced; and everything had its price. Such were the effects of avarice. Ambition was followed by an equal train of evils; it taught men to be false and deceitful; to think one thing, and to say another; to make friendship or enmity a mere traffic for private advantage, and to set the features to a semblance of virtue, while malignity lay lurking in the heart. But at first these vices sapped their way by slow degrees, and were often checked in their progress; but spreading at length like an epidemic contagious, morals and the liberal arts went to ruin; and the government, which was before a model of justice, became the most profligate and oppressive." [tr. Murphy (1807)]
"First a love of money possessed their minds; then a passion for power; and these were the seeds of all the evils that followed. For avarice rooted out faith, probity, and every worthy principle; and, in their stead, substituted insolence, inhumanity, contempt of the gods, and a mercenary spirit. Ambition obliged many to be deceitful; to belie with their tongues the sentiments of their hearts; to value friendship and enmity, not according to their real worth, but as they conduced to interest; and to have a specious countenance, rather than an honest heart. These corruptions at first grew by degrees, and were sometimes checked by correction. At last, the infection spreading like a plague, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most righteous and equitable, became cruel and insupportable." [tr. Rose (1831)]
"Therefore at first the love of money, then that of power increased. These things became as it were the foundation of all evils. For avarice overthrew faith, honesty, and all the other good acts; and instead of them it taught men pride, cruelty, to neglect the gods, and to consider everything venal. Ambition forced many men to become false, to have one thing hidden in their hearts, another ready on their tongue, to value friendships and enmities, not accordingly to reality, but interest, and rather to have a good appearance than a good disposition. These things at first began to increase by degrees, sometimes to be punished. Afterwards when the infection swept on like a pestilence, the state was changed, the government from the most just and best, became cruel and intolerable." [Source (1841)]
"At first the love of money, and then that of power, began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every evil. For avarice subverted honesty, integrity, and other honorable principles, and, in their stead, inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion, and general venality. Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart. These vices at first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes restrained by correction; but afterwards, when their infection had spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became rapacious and insupportable." [tr. Watson (1867)]
"At first the lust of money increased, then that of power, and these, it may be said, were the sources of every evil. Avarice subverted loyalty, uprightness, and every other good quality, and in their stead taught men to be proud and cruel, to neglect the gods, and to hold all things venal. Ambition compelled many to become deceitful; they had one thought buried in their breast, another ready on their tongue; their friendships and enmities they valued not at their real worth, but at the advantage they could bring, and they maintained the look rather than the nature of honest men. These evils at first grew gradually, and were occasionally punished; later, when the contagion advanced like some plague, the state was revolutionized, and the government, from being one of the justest and best, became cruel and unbearable." [tr. Pollard (1882)]
"Hence it was the desire for money first of all, and then for empire, which grew; and these factors were the kindling (so to speak) of every wickedness. For avarice undermined trust, probity, and all other good qualities; instead it taught men haughtiness, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to regard everything as for sale. Ambition reduced many mortals to becoming false, having one sentiment shut away in the heart and another ready on the tongue, assessing friendships and antagonisms in terms not of reality but of advantage, and having a good demeanour rather than a good disposition. At first these things grew gradually; sometimes they were punished; but after, when the contamination had attacked like a plague, the community changed and the exercise of command, from being the best and most just, became cruel and intolerable." [tr. Woodman (2007)]
"At first the desire of power, then the desire of money increased; these were effectively the material of all evils, because avarice overturned faith, probity, and all other noble arts; in their place, it taught men to be arrogant and cruel, to neglect the gods, and to consider all things for sale. Ambition compelled many men to become liars; to hold one thing hidden in the heart, and the opposite thing at the tip of one’s tongue; to judge friends and enemies not in objective terms, but by reference to personal gain; and finally, to make a good appearance rather than to have a good mind. As these vices first began to increase, they were occasionally punished; but afterward, once the contagion had spread like a plague, the state as a whole was altered, and the government, once the noblest and most just, was made cruel and intolerable." [tr. @sententiq (2017)]
That it is the nature of ambition, to make men liars and cheaters; to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths; to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will. [tr. Cowley? (17th C)]
Marrying for money iz a meaner way tew git it than counterfiting.
[Marrying for money is a meaner way to get it than counterfeiting.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw] Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Puddin and Milk” (1874)
(Source)
When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its true value. The love of money as a possession — as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyment and realities of life — will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
“Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” Nation and Athenaeum (1930-10-11)
(Source)
Originally a society talk in 1920, expanded to a lecture given in Madrid (1930-06). Reprinted in Essays in Persuasion, Part 5, ch. 2 (1931).
Making money ain’t nothing exciting to me. … You might be able to buy a little better booze than some wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat, and when you die you’re just as graveyard dead as he is.
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1900-1971) American musician Ebony (Nov 1964)
(Source)
I took such pains not to keep my money in the house, but to put it out of the reach of burglars by buying stock, and had no guess that I was putting it into the hands of these very burglars now grown wiser and standing dressed as Railway Directors.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1857)
(Source)
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis] Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 11, epigram 5 (11.5.3) (AD 96) [tr. Killigrew (1695)]
(Source)
You can buy a man’s time; you can buy a man’s physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of skilled muscular motions per hour or day. But you cannot buy enthusiasm; you cannot buy initiative; you cannot buy loyalty; you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds and souls. You have to earn those things.
Clarence Francis (1888-1985) American business executive, food industry consultant
“The Causes of Industrial Peace,” speech, National Association of Manufacturers (4 Dec 1947)
(Source)
The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man, Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Man the Reformer,” lecture, Boston (1841-01-25)
(Source)
Money is said to be power, which is, in some cases, true; and the same may be said of knowledge; but superior sobriety, industry and activity, are a still more certain source of power; for without these, knowledge is of little use; and, as to the power which money gives, it is that of brute force, it is the power of the bludgeon and the bayonet, and of the bribed press, tongue and pen.
William Cobbett (1763-1835) English politician, agriculturist, journalist, pamphleteer Advice to Young Men, Letter 1, #40 (1829)
(Source)
She ate her trifle, reflecting that grinding poverty, though loathsome while one is in it, has the advantage of making one enjoy money in a way denied to the rich-from-birth.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer Flying Too High, ch. 2 (1990)
(Source)
“Rich people show their appreciation through favors,” I said. “When everyone you know has more money than they know what to do with, money stops being a useful transactional tool. So instead you offer favors. Deals. Quid pro quos. Things that involve personal involvement rather than money. Because when you’re that rich, your personal time is your limiting factor.”
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer Lock In (2014)
By fixing men’s minds, not upon the discharge of social obligations, which restricts their energy, because it defines the goal to which it should be directed, but upon the exercise of the right to pursue their own self-interest, it offers unlimited scope for the acquisition of riches, and therefore gives free play to one of the most powerful of human instincts. To the strong it promises unfettered freedom for the exercise of their strength; to the weak the hope that they too one day may be strong. Before the eyes of both it suspends a golden prize, which not all can attain, but for which each may strive, the enchanting vision of infinite expansion. It assures men that there are no ends other than their ends, no law other than their desires, no limit other than that which they think advisable. Thus it makes the individual the center of his own universe, and dissolves moral principles into a choice of expediences.
R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney] The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)
(Source)
Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot as they go along, and that a man often pays dear for a small frugality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Compensation,” Essays: First Series (1841)
(Source)
The old saying holds. Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
“Overseas Financial Policy in Stage III” (15 May 1945)
Unpublished memo distributed to the British Cabinet.Variant: "If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has."
Rich people show their appreciation through favors. When everyone you know has more money than they know what to do with, money stops being a useful transactional tool. So instead you offer favors. Deals. Quid pro quos. Things that involve personal involvement rather than money. Because when you’re that rich, your personal time is your limiting factor.
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer Lock In (2014)
This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Introduction (1979)
(Source)
I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue; the Roman word is better, “impedimenta;” for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue; it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
(Source)
SYDNEY: You don’t seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins] Poor Richard, Act 1 (1965)
Money couldn’t buy friends, but you got a better class of enemy.
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (1918-2002) Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, actor Puckoon, ch. 6 [Mrs. Doonan] (1963)
(Source)
The phrase, usually in the present tense, became a popular one of his, as in Norma Farnes, Memories of Milligan, "Spike on Spike" (2011): "Money can't buy you friends, but it does get you a better class of enemy," or the variant "Money can't buy you friends, but you get a better class of enemy."
Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure. For example, those who want a high quality of work life but don’t know how to measure it, often settle for wanting a high standard of living because they can measure it.
Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management (2006)
One of the oldest Russian proverbs remains as inexorably true in modern America: “No one is hanged who has money in his pocket.” Or, one might say, capital punishment is only for those without capital.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
Syndicated column, Chicago Daily News (Apr 1971)
MAL: How come you didn’t turn on me, Jayne?
JAYNE: Money wasn’t good enough.
MAL: What happens when it is?
JAYNE: Well, that’ll be an interesting day.
MAL: I imagine it will.
Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon] Firefly, 1×01 “Serenity” (pilot) (20 Dec 2002)
It’s all about money, not freedom, y’all, okay? Nothing to do with fuckin’ freedom. If you think you’re free, try going somewhere without fucking money, okay?
Bill Hicks (1961-1994) American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, musician [William Melvin "Bill" Hicks]
In American: The Bill Hicks Story (2009)
It is a basic economic proposition that as long as a relatively few men own the railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, own the oil fields and the gas fields and the steel mills and the sugar refineries and the leather tanneries — own, in short, the sources and means of life — they will corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working class, they will impoverish and debase society, they will do all things that are needful to perpetuate their power as the economic masters and the political rulers of the people.
Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) American union leader, activist, socialist, politician
“The Issue,” Speech, Girard, Kansas (23 May 1908)
(Source)
Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved.
[Pauvre et libre plutôt que riche et asservi. Bien entendu les hommes veulent être et riches et libres et c’est ce qui les conduit quelquefois à être pauvres et esclaves.]
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright Notebooks: 1942-1951, Notebook 4, Jan 1942 – Sep 1945 [tr. O’Brien/Thody (1963)
(Source)
One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.
Francis I (b. 1936) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013- ) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio] Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 55 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)
Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics — a non-ideological ethics — would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.”
Francis I (b. 1936) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013- ) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio] Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 57 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)
Quoting St. John Chrysostom, De Lazaro Concio, II, 6
What the object of senile avarice may be I cannot conceive. For can there be anything more absurd than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?
[Avaritia vero senilis quid sibi velit, non intellego. Potest enim quicquam esse absurdius quam, quo viae minus restet, eo plus viatici quaerere?]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher De Senectute [Cato Maior; On Old Age], ch. 18 / sec. 65 (18.65) (44 BC) [tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]
(Source)
Also I may not consceyue nor understande why avaryce & covetyse ought to be in an olde man for ther is no thyng more unreasonable nor more folyssh then is for to hepe gretter quantite of wordily goodes or of vitailles in the tyme when the man hath lesse wey for to endure & lyve.
[tr. Worcester/Worcester/Scrope (1481)]
But as for the avarice and covetousness of old men, I am not acquainted therewith, neither do I know what it meaneth. For what can be more absurd or repugnant to all reason than for a wayfaring man, when his journey is now almost dispatched and brought to an end, and hath but little way to go, to provide and furnish himself with the more victuals, and the shorter that his journey is, the more to seek and purvey for costage?
[tr. Newton (1569)]
But as for covetousnesse in age, I know not what it meanes; for there can be no greater absurdity, then when the journey is almost done, to take care to provide much more provision.
[tr. Austin (1648), ch. 19]
Of Age's avarice I cannot see
What colour, ground, or reason there should be,
Is it not folly? when the way we ride
Is short, for a long voyage to provide.
[tr. Denham (1669)]
As for Covetousness, and an eager Desire to heap up Riches in this World, when we are about to leave it, I must own, I know not what to make of it. For what in Nature can be more absurd, than to b e anxiously intent in making Provisions for our Journey, when we are almost at the End of it?
[tr. Hemming (1716)]
As to Covetousness, what it can profit an Old Man I am at a Loss to imagine. For what in Life can be more absurd, than to overstock ourselves with Provision, when we are nigh our Journey's End?
[tr. J. D. (1744)]
What covetousness in old men can mean, I must own, I cannot comprehend; for can any thing be more senselessly absurd, than that the nearer we are to our journey's end, we should still lay in the more provision for it.
[tr. Logan (1750)]
As to avarice, it is inconceivable for what purpose that passion should find admittance into an old man's breast. For surely nothing can be more irrational and absurd than to increase our provision for the road, the nearer we approach to our journey's end.
[tr. Melmoth (1773)]
But, as for avarice in an old man, I cannot understand what it purposes. For can anything be more absurd than to seek the more provisions the less remains of the journey?
[Cornish Bros. ed. (1847)]
What avarice in an old man can propose to itself I cannot conceive: for can anything be more absurd than, in proportion as less of our journey remains, to seek a greater supply of provisions?
[tr. Edmonds (1874)]
Avarice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.
[Common English translation (e.g. (1873))]
As for senile avarice, I do not understand what it means; for can anything be more foolish than, in proportion as there is less of the way to travel, to seek the more provision for it?
[tr. Peabody (1884)]
As to greediness, I do not know
What it can mean. Can aught be more absurd
Than that as life draws to a close, we seek
More money to assist our journey's end?
[tr. Allison (1916)]
As for avariciousness in the old, what purpose it can serve I do not understand, for can anything be more absurd in the traveler than to increase his luggage as he nears his journey's end?
[tr. Falconer (1923)]
As for avarice in an old man, I simply can’t understand it; could anything be more ridiculous than to ask for more and more travel-funds as one’s journey grows closer and closer to its end?
[tr. Copley (1967)]
But greed is another thing altogether. I can never understand why elderly men are so attached to their money. What could be more pointless? Toward the end of a journey, one’s travelling expenses ought to be less, rather than more.
[tr. Cobbold (2012)]
When it comes to old people’s avidity,
It is altogether beyond my pale
To seek more food when shorter is the trail.
[tr. Bozzi (2015)]
We may see the small value God has for riches by the people he gives them to.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“Thoughts on Various Subjects.” Miscellenies in Prose and Verse [pub. with Jonathan Swift], Vol. 2 (1727)
(Source)
May be quoting his friend, Dr. John Arbuthnot. The sentiment seems inspired by La Bruyere.
The wise man does not deem himself undeserving of any of the gifts of Fortune. He does not love riches, but he would rather have them; he does not admit them to his heart, but to his house, and he does not reject the riches he has, but he keeps them and wishes them to supply ampler material for exercising his virtue.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca] Moral Essays, “On the Happy Life” [De Vita Beata]“, 21.4 [tr. Basore (1932)]
What do you think God gave you more wealth than is requisite to satisfy your rational wants for, when you look around and see how many are in absolute need of that which you do not need? Can you not take the hint?
J. G. Holland (1819-1881) American novelist, poet, editor [Josiah Gilbert Holland; pseud. Timothy Titcomb]
(Attributed)
Quoted in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)
You will hear everlastingly, in all discussions about newspapers, companies, aristocracies, or party politics, this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)
The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the dryest little spot. But he didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1932-11-25), “Weekly Article: And Here’s How It All Happened,” # 518
(Source)
An abbreviated form, used in memes, omits sentences 2-4, but is often presented in text as the full quotation.
This mournful truth is ev’ry where confess’d,
SLOW RISES WORTH, BY POVERTY DEPRESS’D:
But here more slow, where all are slaves to gold,
Where looks are merchandise, and smiles are sold.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Poem (1738), “London: A Poem,” ll. 176-179
(Source)
Boys, have you been following those appropriations? Well, Secretary Mellon has asked Congress to please wait till after March 15, when the new income taxes come in, before passing any legislation, as he don’t know how much there will be, if any. But Congress says: No, we are going to divide it up now, whether there is any to divide or not. What do you suppose we are in Congress for, if it ain’t to split up the swag? Please pass the gravy.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1928-01-01), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)
Numerous shortened variants of this can be found online. Written while in Beverly Hills.
For there is nothing so characteristic of narrowness and littleness of soul as the love of riches.
[Nihil enim est tam angusti animi tamque parvi quam amare divitias.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 1, ch. 20 (1.20) / sec. 68 (44 BC) [tr. Miller (1913)]
(Source)
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
People who long to be rich are a prey to temptation; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and dangerous ambitions which eventually plunge them into ruin and destruction. "The love of money is the root of all evils" and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith, and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.
[JB (1966)]
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.
[GNT (1976)]
People who long to be rich are a prey to trial; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and harmful ambitions which plunge people into ruin and destruction. "The love of money is the root of all evils" and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.
[NJB (1985)]
But people who are trying to get rich fall into temptation. They are trapped by many stupid and harmful passions that plunge people into ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.
[CEB (2011)]
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 6, ch. 3, Antitheses #6 “Riches” (1605)
(Source)
Most people imagine that the rich are in heaven, but, as a rule, it is only a gilded hell. There is not a man in the city of New York with genius enough, with brains enough, to own five millions of dollars. Why? The money will own him. He becomes the key to a safe. That money will get him up at daylight; that money will separate him from his friends; that money will fill his heart with fear; that money will rob his days of sunshine and his nights of pleasant dreams. He cannot own it. He becomes the property of that money. And he goes right on making more. What for? He does not know. It becomes a kind of insanity.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1886-11-14), “A Lay Sermon,” American Secular Union annual congress, Chickering Hall, New York City
(Source)
The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor. The man who has struck it rich in minerals, oil, or other bounties of nature is found explaining the debilitating effect of unearned income from the state. The corporate executive who is a superlative success as an organization man weighs in on the evils of bureaucracy. Federal aid to education is feared by those who live in suburbs that could easily forgo this danger, and by people whose children are in public schools. Socialized medicine is condemned by men emerging from Walter Reed Hospital. Social Security is viewed with alarm by those who have the comfortable cushion of an inherited income. Those who are immediately threatened by public efforts to meet their needs — whether widows, small farmers, hospitalized veterans, or the unemployed — are almost always oblivious to the danger.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Speech (1963-12-13), “Wealth and Poverty,” National Policy Committee on Pockets of Poverty
(Source)
Galbraith used variations on this quote over the years.
One of the last is most often cited: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor." ["Stop the Madness," Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (2002-07-06)]
Religion — easily — has the Greatest Bullshit Story Ever Told! Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man — living in the sky — who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, He has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry, forever and ever, till the end of time! But He loves you! He loves you and he needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise — somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story, holy shit!
George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
“You Are All Diseased,” HBO Special (1999-02-06)
(Source)
Reprinted, slightly edited, in Napalm & Silly Putty (2001):
Religion -- easily -- has the Greatest Bullshit Story Ever Told! Think about it: religion has actually convinced people -- many of them adults -- that there's an invisible man who lives in the sky and watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And who has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to remain and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry, forever and ever, till the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money! He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, but somehow ... he just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, pays no taxes, and somehow always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy shit!
Money is a needful and precious thing, — and, when well used, a noble thing, — but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer Little Women, ch. 9 [Mrs. March] (1869)
(Source)
This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. An Irishman, seeing me making a minute in the fields, took it for granted that I was calculating my wages. If a man was tossed out of a window when an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for — business! I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Essay (1863-10), “Life without Principle,” Atlantic Monthly, No. 72
(Source)
Based his lecture (1854-12-06) "What Shall It Profit?" Railroad Hall, Providence, Rhode Island. He had edited it for publication before his death, and it was published posthumously.
It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.
George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) American journalist, author, magazine editor Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, ch. 12 (1903)
(Source)
PEASANT: ‘Tis in such shifts
As these, I care for riches, to make gifts
To friends, or lead a sick man back to health
With ease and plenty. Else small aid is wealth
For daily gladness; once a man be done
With hunger, rich and poor are all as one.
When on these matters I reflect, I mark
How great the power of riches, to bestow
Upon the needy stranger, or expend them
To heal our bodies wasting with disease.
But for the diet of one day, is wealth
Of small importance : for the appetites
Of all men, whether rich or poor, demand
An equal share of necessary food.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]
It is in such cases, whenever I fail in my intentions, that I see how wealth has great power, to give to strangers, and to expend in curing the body when it falls sick; but money for our daily food comes to little; for every man when full, rich or poor, gets an equal amount.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]
But when my mind falls upon this subject, I consider how great a power wealth has, botht o bestow on strangers, and by expense to preserve one's body when fallen into sickness; but for one's daily food it comes to little. For every man once filled, rich or poor, bears an equality.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]
In such things, when my thoughts turn thitherward,
I mark what mighty vantage substance hath,
To give to guests, to medicine the body
In sickness: but for needs of daily food
Not far it reacheth. Each man, rich and poor,
Can be but filled, when hunger is appeased.
[tr. Way (1896)]
When I think of such things then I see what mighty power money has! Not only you help your friends with the stuff but you can also heal yourself from any illness when you have the money to pay. The cost of a normal everyday meal is cheap, because everyone, rich and poor, once he had enough he feels the same joy.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]
It’s at times like this,
when I have no idea how to manage,
I think of the great power money has
for giving things to strangers and paying
to save someone whenever he falls sick.
The meals we need each day don’t come to much,
for all men, once they have eaten their fill,
feel much the same, whether rich or poor.
[tr. Johnston (2009), l. 515ff]
[...] whether rich or poor
Everyone is equal when their belly is full.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
They who are of opinion that Money will do every thing, may very well be suspected to do every thing for Money.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Of Money,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
(Source)
If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom He gives it.
Maurice Baring (1874-1945) English man of letters, writer, essayist, translator
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted by Dorothy Parker in "The Art of Fiction," interview by Marion Capron, The Paris Review #13 (Summer 1956) (reprinted in The Portable Dorothy Parker (1944)). Not found in Baring's writings. The quotation is often attributed to Parker, especially in simpler forms, e.g., "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
Everett Dirksen (1896-1969) American politician
(Attributed)
Frequently attributed to Dirksen, but not found in his writings or speeches. An anonymous reference is made in "Topics of the Times," New York Times (10 Jan 1938): "Well, now, about this new budget. It's a billion here and a billion there, and by and by it begins to mount up into money."
The holy passion of friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring in nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens] The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, ch. 8, epigraph (1894)
(Source)
