Quotations about:
    wealth


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


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).
 
Added on 11-Jun-20 | Last updated 31-May-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Keynes, John Maynard

The miser iz a riddle. What he possesses he haint got, and what he leaves behind him he never had.

[The miser is a riddle. What he possesses he hasn’t got, and what he leaves behind him he never had.]

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. 130 “Affurisms: Puddin & Milk” (1874)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Jun-20 | Last updated 14-Mar-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Billings, Josh

A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.

Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782) Scottish jurist, agriculturalist, philosopher, writer
Introduction to the Art of Thinking, ch. 2 (1761)
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-May-20 | Last updated 15-May-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Home, Henry

Jesus Christ chose to be born of poor and humble parents, in a land remote from the centre of political or intellectual influence, and in the circle of labouring men. He chose to belong to the class of the respectable artisan, and most of the twelve Apostles came from the same social level. In His teaching He plainly associated blessedness with the lot of poverty, and extreme danger with the lot of wealth. All through the New Testament the assumption is that God is on the side of the poor against the rich. As Jowett once said, there is more in the New Testament against being rich, and in favour of being poor, than we like to recognise.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Bishop Gore and the Church of England,” Edinburgh Review (Jan 1908)
    (Source)

Reprinted in Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911).
 
Added on 4-May-20 | Last updated 4-May-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Inge, William Ralph

Justice is indiscriminately due to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.

John Jay (1745-1829) American statesman, diplomat, abolitionist, politician, Chief Justice (1789-1795)
Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 US 1 (1794) [unanimous opinion]
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Apr-20 | Last updated 21-Apr-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Jay, John

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)
 
Added on 13-Mar-20 | Last updated 13-Mar-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Armstrong, Louis

We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Birth of a New Age,” speech, Alpha Phi Alpha banquet, Buffalo (11 Aug 1956)
    (Source)

King used the same phrases, or variations of them, for different speeches and sermons, e.g., in "Desegregation and the Future" (15 Dec 1956), he used "Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity."
 
Added on 24-Feb-20 | Last updated 16-Jan-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by King, Martin Luther

If a man who was rich enough in this world’s goods saw that one of his brothers was in need, but closed his heart to him, how could the love of God be living in him? My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active.

[ὃς δ’ ἂν ἔχῃ τὸν βίον τοῦ κόσμου καὶ θεωρῇ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχοντα καὶ κλείσῃ τὰ σπλάγχνα αὐτοῦ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ πῶς ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἐν αὐτῷ. Τεκνία μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν λόγῳ μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ ἀλλὰ ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
1 John 3: 17-18 [JB (1966)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
[KJV (1611)]

If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God? My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
[GNT (1976)]

If anyone is well-off in worldly possessions and sees his brother in need but closes his heart to him, how can the love of God be remaining in him? Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine.
[NJB (1985)]

But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help—how can the love of God dwell in a person like that?
Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth.
[CEB (2011)]

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
[NIV (2011)]

How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]

 
Added on 24-Feb-20 | Last updated 17-Feb-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 2. New Testament

After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack for choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.

Joanne "Jo" Rowling (b. 1965) British novelist [writes as J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith]
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, ch. 17 [Dumbledore] (1997)
 
Added on 20-Feb-20 | Last updated 20-Feb-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Rowling, Jo

The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.

William Morris (1834-1896) British textile designer, writer, socialist activist
“The Beauty of Life,” lecture, Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 Feb 1880)
    (Source)
 
Added on 12-Feb-20 | Last updated 12-Feb-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Morris, William

Luxury has been railed at for two thousand years, in verse and in prose, and it has always been loved.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Philosophical Dictionary [Dictionnaire philosophique], “Luxury [Le Luxe],” sec. 2 (1764)

    Alt trans.:
  • "Luxury has been declaimed against for the space of two thousand years, both in verse and prose; and yet it has been always liked." [tr. Fleming (1905)]
  • "For these two thousand years past, luxury has been declaimed against, both in verse and prose: but still mankind has always delighted in it." [Source (1835)]
 
Added on 17-Jan-20 | Last updated 17-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Voltaire

In the affluent society no sharp distinction can be made between luxuries and necessaries.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Affluent Society, ch. 21, sec. 4 (1998, 4th ed.)
    (Source)

On sales taxes. Sometimes quoted (from other editions?) as "useful distinction."
 
Added on 14-Jan-20 | Last updated 14-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) English comic actor, film director, composer
My Autobiography, ch. 22 (1964)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Jan-20 | Last updated 8-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Chaplin, Charlie

“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure.”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said “Bah!” again; and followed it up with “Humbug.”

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol, ch. 1 (1843)
    (Source)
 
Added on 16-Dec-19 | Last updated 16-Dec-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Dickens, Charles

While we are poor, the necessarys ov life are the luxurys; after we git ritch, the luxurys are the necessarys.

[While we are poor, the necessaries of life are the luxuries; after we get rich, the luxuries are the necessaries.]

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, “Mollassis Kandy” (1874)
    (Source)
 
Added on 9-Jun-19 | Last updated 9-Jun-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Billings, Josh

We’re like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made the father such a man.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
Comment, “Meet the Press” (22 Mar 1959)

When asked by Ernest Lindley whether American civilization had improved or declined in his lifetime. Often misquoted as "Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made him rich."
 
Added on 13-Mar-19 | Last updated 13-Mar-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Frost, Robert

In reality, the likelihood of reaching the pinnacle of capitalist society today is only marginally better than were the chances of being accepted into the French nobility four centuries ago, though at least an aristocratic age was franker, and therefore kinder, about the odds. It did not relentlessly play up the possibilities open to all, … and so, in turn, did not cruelly equate an ordinary life with a failed one.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 9 “Entrepreneurship” (2009)
    (Source)
 
Added on 3-Jan-19 | Last updated 3-Jan-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by De Botton, Alain

Here’s a man who’s wangled millions;
Yet the parasite’s not done.
Fortune gives too much to many,
Yet, strange to say, enough to none.

[Habet Africanus miliens, tamen captat.
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.]

Marcus Valerius Martial
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 12, epigram 10 (12.10) (AD 101) [tr. Marcellino (1968)]
    (Source)

"On Africanus." Africanus is identified in some sources as a captator, one who sucked up to a childless millionaire in order to inherit part or all of their estate.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

As riche as Cresus Afric is:
for more yet hunts the chuffe:
To muche to many, fortune gives,
and yet to none inuffe.
[tr. Kendall (1577)]

Fortune, some say, doth give too much to many:
And yet she never gave enough to any.
[tr. Harington (fl. c. 1600); Book 4, ep. 56; overall ep. 310]

African has a thousand pounds in store,
Yet he desires, and hunts, and rakes for more:
Fortune hath overmuch bestow'd on some;
But plenary content doth give to none.
[tr. Fletcher (1656)]

He fawns for more, though he his thousands touch:
Fortune gives one enough, but some too much.
[tr. Hay (1755)]

Millions has Africa; yet grasps at more:
Too much have many, none sufficient store.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), 12.65]

Africanus possesses a hundred thousand sesterces, but is always striving by servility to acquire more. Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.
[tr. Amos (1858), ch. 3, ep. 92, "Sufficient Fortune"]

Africanus possesses a hundred thousand sesterces, and yet covets more. Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

Fortune to many gives too much, enough to none.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

African us possesses a hundred millions, yet he angles for more. Fortune to many gives too much, enough to none.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

Although he is a millionaire,
He courts the rich who lack an heir;
Fortune gives much to many a one,
But just enough she grants to none.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]

Africanus has a hundred million, but still he fishes for legacies. Fortune gives too much to many, to none enough.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

Africanus is a tireless legacy-hunter
though he's a wealthy man.
Fortune gives too much to many,
enough to none
[tr. Kennelly (2008)]

Although worth millions, Africanus hunts a legacy.
To many Fortune gives too much, enough to nobody.
[tr. McLean (2014)]

Africanus has a hundred million, and still he's hunting legacies. Fortune gives too much to many, but "enough" to none.
[tr. Nisbet (2015)]

 
Added on 21-Nov-18 | Last updated 27-Nov-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Martial

‘Tis rare, when riches cannot taint the mind.

[Ardua res haec est opibus non tradere mores.]

Marcus Valerius Martial
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)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Wealth to withstand, how arduous is the skill!
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Appendix to Book 1, ep. 12]

It is an arduous task to preserve morality from the corruption of riches.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

'Tis a hard task not to surrender morality for riches.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

'Tis a hard task this, not to sacrifice manners to wealth.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

Riches sap morals.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924)]

It is a hard thing not to sacrifice morals to wealth.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

It is a hard business, not to compromise morals for riches.
[tr. Nisbet (2015)]

 
Added on 14-Nov-18 | Last updated 27-Nov-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Martial

Doom for the man who founds his palace on anything but integrity, his upstairs rooms on anything but honesty, who makes his fellow man work for nothing, without paying him his wages, who says, “I will build myself an imposing palace with spacious rooms upstairs”, who pierces lights in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.
Are you more of a king for outrivalling others with cedar?
Your father ate and drank, like you, but he practised honesty and integrity, so all went well for him. He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? – it is Yahweh who speaks.
You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 22:13ff (Jer 22:13-17) [tr. JB (1966)]
    (Source)

Speaking out against Jehoiakim, the King of Judah.

Alternate translations:

Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?
Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.
But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
[KJV (1611)]

Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice
and enlarges it by dishonesty;
who makes his people work for nothing
and does not pay their wages.
Doomed is the one who says,
“I will build myself a mansion
with spacious rooms upstairs.”
So he puts windows in his house,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it red.
Does it make you a better king
if you build houses of cedar,
finer than those of others?
Your father enjoyed a full life.
He was always just and fair,
and he prospered in everything he did.
He gave the poor a fair trial,
and all went well with him.
That is what it means to know the Lord.
But you can only see your selfish interests;
you kill the innocent
and violently oppress your people.
The Lord has spoken.
[GNT (1976)]

Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness, his upstairs rooms without fair judgement, who makes his fellow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages, who says, "I shall build myself a spacious palace with airy upstairs rooms," who makes windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.
Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? Did your father go hungry or thirsty? But he did what is just and upright, so all went well for him. He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? Yahweh demands.
You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.
[NJB (1985)]

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
and does not give them their wages,
who says, “I will build myself a spacious house
with large upper rooms,”
and who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar
and painting it with vermilion.
Are you a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.
But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]

Ha! He who builds his house with unfairness
And his upper chambers with injustice,
Who makes his neighbors work without pay
And does not give them their wages,
Who thinks: I will build me a vast palace
With spacious upper chambers,
Provided with windows,
Paneled in cedar,
Painted with vermilion!
Do you think you are more a king
Because you compete in cedar?
Your father ate and drank
And dispensed justice and equity --
Then all went well with him.
He upheld the rights of the poor and needy --
Then all was well.
That is truly heeding Me
-- declares GOD.
But your eyes and your mind are only
On ill-gotten gains,
On shedding the blood of the innocent,
On committing fraud and violence.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]

 
Added on 26-Oct-18 | Last updated 21-Apr-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 1. Old Testament

Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
On Tyranny, ch. 10 (2017)
    (Source)
 
Added on 7-Jun-18 | Last updated 7-Jun-18
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Snyder, Timothy

You confuse what’s important with what’s impressive.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
Maurice (w. 1914, pub. 1971)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Jan-18 | Last updated 8-Jan-18
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Forster, E. M.

If you’re poor now, my friend, then you’ll stay poor.
These days only the rich get given more.

[Semper eris pauper, si pauper es, Aemiliane;
Dantur opes nulli nunc, nisi divitibus.]

Marcus Valerius Martial
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 5, epigram 81 (5.81) (AD 90) [tr. Michie (1972)]
    (Source)

"To Aemilianus." (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Faile yee of wealth, of wealthy ye still will faile,
None but fat sowes are now greaz'd in the taile.
[tr. Davison (1602), "To All Poore Schollers"]

If thou be poore, thou shalt be ever so;
None now do wealth, but on the rich, bestowe.
[tr. May (1629)]

If thou are poor, Æmilian,
Thou shalt be ever so,
For no man now his presents can
But on the rich bestow.
[tr. Fletcher (1656)]

You want, Æmilianus, so you may;
Riches are given rich men, and none but they.
[tr. Wright (1663)]

Once poor, my friend, still poor you must remain,
The rich alone have all the means of gain.
[tr. Edward Cave, Rambler # 166 (19 Oct 1751); sometimes attributed to publisher Samuel Johnson]

Poor once and poor for ever, Nat, I fear;
None but the rich get place and pension here.
[tr. Halhed (1793)]

If you are poor now, Æmilianus, you will always be poor.
Riches are now given to none but the rich.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

If poor you are, poor you will always be,
For wealth’s now given to none but to the rich.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

You will always be poor, if you are poor, Aemilianus.
Wealth is given today to none save the rich.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

Gold only draws to gold, so it is plain,
If you are poor, that poor you will remain.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]

Poor if you are, my friend,
Poor will you always be.
Money gets money today;
Poverty, poverty.
[tr. Marcellino (1968)]

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days only the rich get given more.
[tr. Michie (1972)]

You will always be poor if you are poor, Aemilianus. Nowadays wealth is given only to the rich.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

You're cursed by poverty? But they tell me you're "blessed."
While the rich get richer ... you know the rest.
[tr. Ericsson (1995)]

Aemilianus, you’ll always be poor if you’re poor.
These days they only give wealth to the rich.
[tr. Klein (2006)]

Vainly the poor extend their palms.
Only the rich are given alms.
[tr. Wills (2007)]

If you're a poor man now, Amos,
a poor man you'll remain.
Riches are only given only
to rich men.
[tr. Kennelly (2008)]

You will always be poor, Aemilianus, if you are poor;
nowadays wealth comes to no one but the rich.
[tr. @sentantiq (2012)]

If poor, Aemilianus, poor you'll stay.
None but the rich get wealthier today.
[tr. McLean (2014)]

 
Added on 13-Dec-17 | Last updated 27-Nov-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Martial

Where Plenty smiles — alas! she smiles for few,
And those who taste not, yet behold her store,
Are as the slaves that dig the golden ore,
The wealth around them makes them doubly poor.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) English poet, writer, surgeon, clergyman
The Village, Book 1, line 136 (1783)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Oct-17 | Last updated 2-Oct-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Crabbe, George

Ability is a poor man’s wealth.

Matthew Wren (1585-1667) English clergyman, bishop, scholar
(Attributed)

First found in Day's Collacon (1884).
 
Added on 11-Sep-17 | Last updated 11-Sep-17
Link to this post | 2 comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Wren, Matthew

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition.

Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
Commencement Address, Knox College, Galesburg, IL (4 Jun 2005)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Sep-17 | Last updated 6-Sep-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Obama, Barack

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
Phryne Fisher No. 2, Flying Too High, ch. 2 (1990)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Jul-17 | Last updated 15-Jan-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Greenwood, Kerry

One house upon the Esquiline,
One where patricians dwell,
And hard beside Diana’s shrine
You have a third as well.
You live near mournful Cybele,
You’ve Vesta’s fane in view;
Jove’s ancient temple you can see.
You look upon the new.
With seven dwellings I despair
To find you when I call,
He who has mansions everywhere
Has not a home at all.

[Esquiliis domus est, domus est tibi colle Dianae,
Et tua patricius culmina vicus habet;
Hinc viduae Cybeles, illinc sacraria Vestae,
Inde novum, veterem prospicis inde Iovem.
Dic, ubi conveniam, dic, qua te parte requiram:
Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat.]

Marcus Valerius Martial
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 7, epigram 73 (7.73) (AD 92) [tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Thou has a house on the Aventine hill,
Another where Diana's worshipped still,
In the Patrician street more of them stand,
Hence thou beholdst within thine eyes, command
The widowed Cybells, thence Vesta with all,
There either Jove earth'd in the Capitol.
Where shall I meet thee? tell, where wilt appear?
He dwells just nowhere, that dwells everywhere.
[tr. Fletcher (1656)]

On Esquiline, and on Diana's hill,
Thou hast abodes thou not pretend'st to fill.
But city-sites can ne'er suffice thy state:
Thou far from town must tow'r among the great:
Hence Cybele's, thence Vesta's fane behold;
Here the new Jupiter, and there the old.
Where shall I meet thee? who they mansion tells?
Who e'vrywhere inhabits, nowhere dwells.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Book 6, Part 1, ep. 10]

You possess a house at Esquiliae, and one on the hill of Diana; and the street of Patricians amongst its roofs reckons yours. From one of your houses you behold the temple of Cybele, from another that of Vesta; you command a view both of the ancient and modern capitol. Say, where shall I meet with you? At what place shall I ask for you? Maximus! he who lives everywhere lives nowhere.
[tr. Amos (1858), ch. 3, ep. 103]

You have a mansion on the Esquiline hill, and a mansion on the hill of Diana; and another rears its head in the Patricians' quarter. From one of your dwellings you behold the temple of the widowed Cybele, from another that of Vesta; from others you look on the old and the new Capitol. Tell me where I may meet you; tell me whereabouts I am to look for you: a man who lives everywhere, Maximus, lives nowhere.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

He has no home whose home is all the world.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

On the Esquiline you have a house, you have a house on Diana's hill, and the Patrician Street holds a roof of yours; from this you survey the shrine of widowed Cybele, from that the shrine of Vesta; from here the new, from there the ancient temple of Jove. Say where I amy call upon you, say in what quarter I may look for you: he who lives everywhere, Maximus, lives nowhere.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

The Esquiline and Aventine are yours
And the Patrician Street confronts your doors;
Thence widowed Cybele and Vesta's fire
And ancient Jove and modern you admire.
Where shall I meet you, wither, pray, repair?
He has no home who lodges everywhere.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924), ep. 372]

That's a fine lace you have on Beacon Hill, Max,
and that unlisted duplex out Huntington Avenue,
and the old homestead in Tewksbury.
From one you can see
the big gilt dome; the second
gives you an uninterrupted ecstatic view
of the Mother Church; the third
commands the County Poorhouse.
And you
invite me to dinner?
There?
There?
Or there?
Max, a man who lives everywhere
lives nowhere.
[tr. Fitts (1967), "... Are Many Mansions"]

You have one home on the Esquiline,
Another on the Aventine,
And from a third one you can see
The shrine of widowed Cybele.
From still another you've a view
Of both the temples, old and new,
Of Jupiter, In fact, a home
Of yours lies everywhere in Rome!
Where can I find you when in town?
At what address can you be found?
He who lives all over Rome
Never can be found at home.
[tr. Marcellino (1968), "A Far-Flung Friend"]

A house on the Esquiline --
and one on the Aventine --
Patricius Street claims another rooftop of yours
over here you have a shrine on the widowed Great Mother
over there is your sacred hearth of Vesta
elsewhere you display a new bust of Jove
elsewhere a bust of Veiovis.
Can you tell me, Maximus,
where to meet you,
where to find you at home?
Someone
who
lives
everywhere
lives
Nowhere.
[tr. Bovie (1970)]

You have a house on the Esquiline, and a house on Diana's hill, and Patrician Row has a roof of yours. From one you view the shrine of bereaved Cybele, from another that of Vesta, and from this Jupiter's new temple, from that the old one. Tell me where I am to meet you, in what quarter to look for you. Who lives everywhere, Maximus, lives nowhere.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

You’ve a house on the Esquiline, house on the Aventine,
and Patrician Street owns a roof of yours too;
add one with a view of poor Cybele’s shrine,
one Vesta’s, one Jupiter’s old, one his new.
Tell me where to meet you, tell me where to find you:
Who lives everywhere, Maximus, lives nowhere at all.
[tr. Kline (2006)]

Birds of the air know
the man with a house everywhere
has a home nowhere.
[tr. Kennelly (2008), "A geography"]

 
Added on 7-Jul-17 | Last updated 27-Nov-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Martial

Man has three friends on whose company he relies. First, wealth — which goes with him only while good fortune lasts. Second, his relatives — they go only as far as the grave and leave him there. The third friend, his good deeds, go with him beyond the grave.

The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
(Attributed)

I could not find an actual citation for this quotation, but the story (the explanation of a parable, in which a man is summoned before a king, and while his dearest friend will not go with him, and his second best friend will only go to the palace gates, his least-loved friend goes with him before the throne) shows up with different translation in multiple sources:
  • The Talmud: SelectionsPart 5 "Civil and Criminal Laws -- the Holy Days" - "The Day of Atonement" [tr. Polano (1876)].
  • Isaac Aboav, Lamp of Light [Menorat Hamoar] [14th C], Fifth Lamp "Teshuvah," Sec. 2 [ch. 3]  in Leonard Kravitz and Kerry Olitzky, <i>Journey of the Soul: Traditional Sources on the</i> Teshuvah (1995).
  • Talmudic and Other Legends [tr., comp. Weiss (1888 ed.), "Man's Three Friends" (Pirke R. Eliezer).
 
Added on 15-Jun-17 | Last updated 15-Jun-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Talmud

Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan of “Soak the Rich.”

Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
(Attributed)
 
Added on 14-Jun-17 | Last updated 14-Jun-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Broun, Heywood

The urge to distribute wealth equally, and still more the belief that it can be brought about by political action, is the most dangerous of all popular emotions. It is the legitimation of envy, of all the deadly sins the one which a stable society based on consensus should fear the most. The monster state is a source of many evils; but it is, above all, an engine of envy.

Paul Johnson (b. 1928) English journalist, historian, speechwriter, author
The Recovery of Freedom (1980)
 
Added on 11-Apr-17 | Last updated 11-Apr-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Paul

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist
The Communist Manifesto (1848) [with Friedrich Engels]
 
Added on 6-Apr-17 | Last updated 6-Apr-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Marx, Karl

[Capitalism is] the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
(Attributed)

Attributed by Sir George Schuster, Christianity and Human Relations in Industry (1951). Frequently quoted, but no direct citation found.

A common variant, also not found in Keynes' work (and also attributed, without citation, to John Kenneth Galbraith):

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

E. A. G. Robinson was a close colleague of Galbraith, and in his book Monopoly (1941), he wrote:

The great merit of the capitalist system, it has been said, is that it succeeds in using the nastiest motives of nasty people for the ultimate benefit of society.

Another variant:

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.

More discussion and research into this quote:

 
Added on 28-Mar-17 | Last updated 8-Jul-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Keynes, John Maynard

What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power. This same tendency, operating with increasing force, is observable in our civilization to-day, showing itself in every progressive community, and with greater intensity the more progressive the community. Wages and interest tend constantly to fall, rent to rise, the rich to become very much richer, the poor to become more helpless and hopeless, and the middle class to be swept away.

Henry George (1839-1897) American economist
Progress and Poverty, “How Modern Civilization May Decline” (1879)
 
Added on 22-Mar-17 | Last updated 22-Mar-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by George, Henry

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

William J. H. Boetcker (1873-1962) German-American religious leader, author, public speaker [William John Henry Boetcker]
“The Industrial Decalogue” (1916)

Often referred to as "The Ten Cannots," and also often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
 
Added on 14-Mar-17 | Last updated 14-Mar-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Boetcker, William J. H.

People say law, but they mean wealth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1841)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Mar-17 | Last updated 13-Mar-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

It is not merely that the ownership of any substantial share in the national wealth is concentrated to-day in the hands of a few hundred thousand families, and that at the end of an age which began with an affirmation of the rights of property, proprietary rights are, in fact, far from being widely distributed. Nor is it merely that what makes property insecure to-day is not the arbitrary taxation of unconstitutional monarchies or the privileges of an idle noblesse, but the insatiable expansion and aggregation of property itself, which menaces with absorption all property less than the greatest, the small master, the little shopkeeper, the country bank, and has turned the mass of mankind into a proletariat working under the agents and for the profit of those who own.

R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
The Acquisitive Century, ch. 5 “Property and Creative Work” (1920)
 
Added on 23-Feb-17 | Last updated 23-Feb-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Tawney, R. H.

The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force.

George Bancroft (1800-1891) American historian, statesman, education reformer
Speech, Adelphi Society, Liamstown College (Aug 1835)
 
Added on 30-Jan-17 | Last updated 30-Jan-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bancroft, George

“Which of them shall be accounted greatest?” Let the churches stop trying to outstrip each other in the number of their adherents, the size of its sanctuary, the abundance of wealth. If we must compete let us compete to see which can move toward the greatest attainment of truth, the greatest service of the poor, and the greatest salvation of the soul and bodies of men. If the Church entered this kind of competition we can imagine what a better world this would be.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Cooperative Competition / Noble Competition,” sermon outline
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Dec-16 | Last updated 30-Dec-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by King, Martin Luther

Money is that dear thing which
if you’re not careful, you can squander
your whole life thinking of …

salter-money-is-that-dear-thing-wist_info-quote

Mary Jo Salter (b. 1954) American poet, editor, academic
“A Benediction,” part 6, ll. 1-3 (1994)
 
Added on 26-Dec-16 | Last updated 26-Dec-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Salter, Mary Jo

Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing, [the Puritan] sees in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.

R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, ch. 4 (1926)
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-Dec-16 | Last updated 17-Apr-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Tawney, R. H.

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
Foundations of the Republic (1926)
 
Added on 13-Dec-16 | Last updated 13-Dec-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Coolidge, Calvin

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be —
I had a mother who read to me.

Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954) American poet and humorist
“The Reading Mother”
 
Added on 3-Nov-16 | Last updated 3-Nov-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gillilan, Strickland

Some men rob you with a six-gun,
Some with a fountain pen.

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) American singer-songwriter and musician
“Pretty Boy Floyd the Outlaw” (1961)
 
Added on 14-Oct-16 | Last updated 14-Oct-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Guthrie, Woody

My father deals with millionaires and billionaires on a daily basis, the sort of people who have egos just this side (and sometimes way over the edge) of sociopathy. The sort of person who thinks he’s the apex predator wading through a universe of sheep.

John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Lock In, ch. 6 (2014)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Oct-16 | Last updated 8-Jan-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Scalzi, John

When people ask, “Why should the rich pay a larger percent of their income than middle-income people?” — my answer is not an answer most people get: It’s because their power developed from laws that enriched them.

Ralph Nader (b. 1934) American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist
“Public Citizen Number One,” by Debra Saunders, San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (13 Oct 1996)
 
Added on 10-Oct-16 | Last updated 10-Oct-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Nader, Ralph

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, ch. 3 [Shane] (2014)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Oct-16 | Last updated 8-Jan-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Scalzi, John

He who withholds but a pennyworth of worldly goods from his neighbor, knowing him to be in need of it, is a robber in the sight of God.

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328?) German theologian, philosopher, mystic [a.k.a. Johannes Eckhart von Hochheim; Eckhart; Eckehart]
Meister Eckhart, Tractate 6, “Sister Katrei” [ed. Pfeiffer (1857), tr. Evans]
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Sep-16 | Last updated 30-Sep-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Eckhart, Meister

I will enjoy the pleasure of what I give by giving it alive, and seeing another enjoy it. When I die, I should be ashamed to leave enough to build me a monument if there were a wanting friend above ground.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
Letter to Jonathan Swift (9 Oct 1729)
 
Added on 2-Sep-16 | Last updated 2-Sep-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Pope, Alexander

No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Life Thoughts: Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher (1858)
 
Added on 16-Aug-16 | Last updated 16-Aug-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Beecher, Henry Ward

NARRATOR: This planet has, or had, a problem which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 2nd” (BBC Radio) (1978-03-15)
    (Source)

Though in the second episode of the radio play, this material was moved in the book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), into an introduction. The text was left unchanged, except that the first line reads "This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem ...."
 
Added on 8-Aug-16 | Last updated 14-Jan-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Adams, Douglas

The truest American president we have ever had, the companion of Washington in our love and honor, recognized that the poorest man, however outraged, however ignorant, however despised, however black, was, as a man, his equal. The child of the American people was their most prophetic man, because, whether as small shop-keeper, as flat-boatman, as volunteer captain, as honest lawyer, as defender of the Declaration, as President of the United States, he knew by the profoundest instinct and the widest experience and reflection, that in the most vital faith of this country it is just as honorable for an honest man to curry a horse and black a boot as it is to raise cotton or corn, to sell molasses or cloth, to practice medicine or law, to gamble in stocks or speculate in petroleum. He knew the European doctrine that the king makes the gentleman; but he believed with his whole soul the doctrine, the American doctrine, that worth makes the man.

George William Curtis (1824-1892) American essayist, editor, reformer, orator
“The Good Fight” (1865)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Jul-16 | Last updated 11-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Curtis, George William

Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 9-Jun-16 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

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.

Bacon - loseth the victory - wist_info quote

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Jun-16 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

No matter how poor I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise; and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live.

William E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
“Self Culture,” lecture, Boston (Sep 1838)
 
Added on 5-May-16 | Last updated 5-May-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Channing, William E.

What a country wants to make it richer is never consumption, but production. Where there is the latter, we may be sure that there is no want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer desires to consume; why else should he give himself useless labor? He may not wish to consume what he himself produces, but his motive for producing and selling is the desire to buy. Therefore, if the producers generally produce and sell more and more, they certainly also buy more and more.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
“The Consumer Theory of Prosperity” (1830)
 
Added on 27-Apr-16 | Last updated 27-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Mill, John Stuart

One of the temptations of upper-middle class life is to create sharp edges of our moral sensitivities that allows comfortable confusions about sin and virtue. The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin more than the poor, it is that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue. When the poor sin, they call it sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such. This intuitive clarity is often absent from the wealthy, and that absence easily leads to the atrophy of the moral sense.

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) Dutch Catholic priest and writer
Encounters with Merton (2004)
 
Added on 22-Apr-16 | Last updated 22-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Nouwen, Henri

Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist
Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production (1873)
 
Added on 20-Apr-16 | Last updated 20-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Marx, Karl

To have money is a feare, not to have it a griefe.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 591 (1640 ed.)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-Mar-16 | Last updated 22-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Herbert, George

Riches are a trust. … Power is a trust. So also is genius or every degree of wisdom. … Talents are a trust, too; that is the condition of their increase. They must be put out to use, or they will ruin the steward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1831-07)
    (Source)
 
Added on 16-Mar-16 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

Sterne - desire of knowledge - wist_info quote

Laurence Sterne (1713-1786) Anglo-Irish novelist, Anglican clergyman
Tristam Shandy, Book 1, ch. 3 (1760-1767)
 
Added on 3-Mar-16 | Last updated 3-Mar-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Sterne, Laurence

The history of the Jews also shows that oppression and persecution are far more efficacious in binding a nation together than community of interest and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides rather than unites a people; but suffering shared in common binds it together with hoops of steel.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)
 
Added on 18-Jan-16 | Last updated 18-Jan-16
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Inge, William Ralph

“Money does not bring happiness” — only the wherewithal, perhaps, to endure its absence.

Ehrenreich - money happiness - wist_info quote

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) American feminist, journalist, political activist
Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, ch. 6 (1990)
 
Added on 15-Jan-16 | Last updated 1-Jun-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Ehrenreich, Barbara

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
The Open Door (1957)
 
Added on 15-Jan-16 | Last updated 15-Jan-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Keller, Helen

Yet the day is not far distant when the man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during his life, will pass away “unwept, unhonoured and unsung,” no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him. The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.

Carnegie - dies thus rich - wist_info quote

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
“The Gospel of Wealth,” Part 1, North American Review (1889-06)
    (Source)

Collected in The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays (1900).
 
Added on 11-Dec-15 | Last updated 18-Sep-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Carnegie, Andrew

I know that a man who shows me his wealth is like the beggar who shows me his poverty; they are both looking for alms from me, the rich man for the alms of my envy, the poor man for the alms of my guilt.

Ben Hecht (1894-1964) American writer, director, producer, journalist
A Child of the Century (1954)
 
Added on 9-Dec-15 | Last updated 9-Dec-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Hecht, Ben

Senseless extravagance is the best friend of revolution.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
 
Added on 7-Dec-15 | Last updated 4-Jan-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Inge, William Ralph

I hold it to be our duty to see that the wage worker, the small producer, the ordinary consumer, shall get their fair share of the benefit of business prosperity. But it either is or ought to be evident to everyone that business has to prosper before anybody can get any benefit from it.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech, Ohio Constitutional Convention (1 Feb 1912)
 
Added on 9-Nov-15 | Last updated 9-Nov-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

We cannot exist as a little island of well-being in a world where two-thirds of the people go to bed hungry every night.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Speech (8 Dec 1959)
 
Added on 15-Oct-15 | Last updated 15-Oct-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Eleanor

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)
 
Added on 12-Oct-15 | Last updated 12-Oct-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Kerr, Jean

It has not yet been recorded that any human being has gained a very large or permanent contentment from meditation upon the fact that he is better off than others.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American novelist, playwright
Main Street (1920)
 
Added on 15-Sep-15 | Last updated 15-Sep-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Lewis, Sinclair

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Letter (1720-08-13) to Esther Vanhomrigh
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Aug-15 | Last updated 4-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Swift, Jonathan

Privilege should not be tolerated because it is to the advantage of a minority; nor yet because it is to the advantage of a majority. No doctrinaire theories of vested rights or freedom of contract can stand in the way of our cutting out abuses from the body politic.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Lecture (1910-06-07), “Biological Analogies in History,” Romanes Lecture, Oxford University
    (Source)
 
Added on 26-Aug-15 | Last updated 5-Sep-24
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

As in law so in war, the longest purse finally wins.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Bombay Provincial Cooperative Conference (17 Sep 1917)

See also Taft, DeFoe.
 
Added on 13-Aug-15 | Last updated 13-Aug-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

Delay works always for the man with the longest purse.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
“Adequate Machinery for Judicial Business,” Journal of the American Bar Association (Sep 1921)
 
Added on 3-Aug-15 | Last updated 3-Aug-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Taft, William

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."
 
Added on 30-Jul-15 | Last updated 3-Jan-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Milligan, Spike

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.

Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (1918-2002) Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, actor
(Attributed)
 
Added on 23-Jul-15 | Last updated 23-Jul-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Milligan, Spike

A brave people will certainly prefer liberty, accompanied by virtuous poverty, to a depraved and wealthy servitude.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
 
Added on 22-Jul-15 | Last updated 22-Jul-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Burke, Edmund

I am stressing that it is the force of ideas rather than the impact of material things that made us a great nation. It is my conviction, too, that only the power of ideas, of enduring values, can keep us a great nation. For, where there is no vision the people perish.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Tomorrow Is Now (1963)
 
Added on 17-Jun-15 | Last updated 17-Jun-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Eleanor

Most of us have achieved levels of affluence and comfort un-thought of two generations ago. We’ve never had it so good, most of us. Nor have we ever complained so bitterly about our problems. The closed circle of materialism is clear to us now — aspirations become wants, wants become needs, and self-gratification becomes a bottomless pit. All around us we have seen success in the world’s terms become ultimate and desperate failure.

Mario Cuomo (1932-2015) American politician
Commencement Address, Iona College (3 Jun 1984)
 
Added on 15-Jun-15 | Last updated 15-Jun-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cuomo, Mario

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)
 
Added on 31-Mar-15 | Last updated 31-Mar-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Harris, Sydney J.

Most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one and then it is too late for them to enjoy it.

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) English diarist, naval administrator
Diary (1666-03-10)
 
Added on 27-Mar-15 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Pepys, Samuel

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) English poet
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” st. 9, l. 33ff (1751)
    (Source)
 
Added on 25-Mar-15 | Last updated 25-Sep-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gray, Thomas

The snow covers many a dunghill, so doth prosperity many a rotten heart.

Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) English Puritan divine, writer
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1652)
 
Added on 19-Nov-14 | Last updated 19-Nov-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Brooks, Thomas

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)
 
Added on 17-Nov-14 | Last updated 16-May-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Camus, Albert

We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Quoted in Raymond Lonergan, “A Steadfast Friend of Labor,” Labor magazine, Washington, D.C. (1941-10-14)
    (Source)

Brandeis had died on the 5th of the month. Lonergan, himself, gives the quote second hand ("... he once said to a younger friend, who appreciated the opportunity to sit at the feet of this modern Gamaliel"). This remains the only citation of the quotation, on those rare occasions when it is given such.
Collected in Irving Dillard, ed., Mr. Justice Brandeis, Great American (1941).
 
Added on 14-Oct-14 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Brandeis, Louis

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.

Francis I (1936-2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Jul-14 | Last updated 30-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Francis I (Pope)

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favored and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good Morning!” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine — we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) American poet
“Richard Corey” (1897)
 
Added on 18-Jul-14 | Last updated 26-Jul-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

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 (1936-2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 57 (24 Nov 2013)
    (Source)

Quoting St. John Chrysostom, De Lazaro Concio, II, 6
 
Added on 16-Jul-14 | Last updated 16-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Francis I (Pope)

A miser grows rich by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

William Shenstone (1714-1763) English poet
“Of Men and Manners,” sec. 86, Men and Manners (1804)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Jul-14 | Last updated 14-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Shenstone, William

A rich man without charity is a rogue; and perhaps it would be no difficult matter to prove that he is also a fool.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) English novelist, dramatist, satirist
The Covent-Garden Journal, #44 (2 Jun 1752)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Jul-14 | Last updated 8-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Fielding, Henry

It is not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, ch. 40 (1588)
 
Added on 16-Jun-14 | Last updated 16-Jun-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Montaigne, Michel de

The state was endangered by two opposite vices, luxury and avarice; those pests which have ever been the ruin of every great state.

Livy (59 BC-AD 17) Roman historian [Titus Livius]
The History of Rome, Book 34, ch. 3 [tr. Baker (1836)]
    (Source)
 
Added on 9-Jun-14 | Last updated 9-Jun-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Livy

You make a living by what you earn, you make a life by what you give.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Spurious)

Frequently attributed to Churchill, but not found in any of his writings or records of his spoken words by the Churchill Centre.
 
Added on 4-Jun-14 | Last updated 4-Jun-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Churchill, Winston

People who insist that the sacredness of Scripture depends on belief in creation in a literal six days seem never to insist on a literal reading of “to him who asks, give,” or “sell what you have and give the money to the poor.” In fact, their politics and economics align themselves quite precisely with those of their adversaries, who yearn to disburden themselves of the weak, and to unshackle the great creative forces of competition. The defenders of “religion” have made religion seem foolish while rendering it mute in the face of a prolonged and highly effective assault on the poor.

Marilynne Robinson (b. 1943) American novelist and essayist
“Darwinism,” The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998)
 
Added on 15-May-14 | Last updated 15-May-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Robinson, Marilynne

Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3
    (Source)

Based on a course of lectures, "The Conduct of Life," delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).
 
Added on 21-Apr-14 | Last updated 4-Mar-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there’s more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.

Norman Mailer (1923-2007) American novelist, journalist, playwright, activist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 21-Apr-14 | Last updated 21-Apr-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Mailer, Norman

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
(Attributed)

Attributed to Bacon in Alexander Anderson, Laconics: or Instructive Miscellanies, (1827). Attributed to French moralist Pierre Charron (1541-1603) in John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors (1829). See also French saying.
 
Added on 14-Apr-14 | Last updated 16-May-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

For the renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

[Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur.]

Sallust (c. 86-35 BC) Roman historian and politician [Gaius Sallustius Crispus]
Bellum Catilinae [The War of Catiline; The Conspiracy of Catiline], ch. 1, sent. 4 [tr. Rolfe (1931)]
    (Source)

Original Latin. Alt. trans.:
  • "For what are all the advantages of wealth, and all the graces of form and feature? mere precarious gifts, that soon fade and moulder away. It is virtue, and virtue only, that ennobles the human character, and lives in the memory of the after-times." [tr. Murphy (1807)]
  • "For the splendour derived from riches and beauty is short-lived and frail, virtue alone confers immortality." [tr. Rose (1831)
  • "For the glory of riches and beauty is fickle and frail; virtue is accounted bright and everlasting." [Source (1841)]
  • "For the glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and perishable; that of intellectual power is illustrious and immortal." [tr. Watson (1867)]
  • "The glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and frail, but personal merit is held in eternal honour." [tr. Pollard (1882)]
  • "The glory of riches and appearance is fleeting and fragile, but to have prowess is something distinguished and everlasting. [tr. Woodman (2007)]
  • "For the fame of riches and beauty is fickle and frail, while virtue is eternally excellent."
 
Added on 3-Apr-14 | Last updated 23-Oct-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Sallust

The real “haves” are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities.
On the other hand, the real “have nots” are those who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 115 (1955)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Apr-14 | Last updated 17-Jul-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Hoffer, Eric

Don’t complicate matters by assuming for me a cupidity and corruption beyond the limits I have set for myself. You’re suffering from an occupational disease. When an international financier is confronted by a holdup man with a gun, he automatically hands over not only his money and jewelry but also his shirt and pants, because it doesn’t occur to him that a robber might draw the line somewhere.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Over My Dead Body, ch. 10 [Wolfe] (1940)
 
Added on 27-Mar-14 | Last updated 27-Mar-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Stout, Rex

Making money is easy, knowing what to do with it becomes a problem.

Ring Lardner (1885-1933) American sports columnist and writer [Ringgold Wilmer Lardner]
(Attributed)
 
Added on 14-Mar-14 | Last updated 14-Mar-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Lardner, Ring

When riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls.

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, 8.550 [tr. Jowett (1894)]
 
Added on 6-Mar-14 | Last updated 6-Mar-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Plato

I hope we shall take warning from [England’s] example and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1816-11-12) to George Logan
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Mar-14 | Last updated 2-Jul-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Jefferson, Thomas

Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenance, and said to her, “Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us.” I thus, Sir, shewed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine. She has never liked me since. Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (12 Jul 1763)

In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
 
Added on 28-Feb-14 | Last updated 28-Feb-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Samuel

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.
 
Added on 27-Feb-14 | Last updated 30-Apr-24
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Pope, Alexander

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The Red Box, ch. 11 [Wolfe] (1937)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Feb-14 | Last updated 18-Dec-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Stout, Rex

What is really desired, under the name of riches, is, essentially, power over men; in its simplest sense, the power of obtaining for our own advantage the labor of servant, tradesman, and artist; in wider sense, authority of directing large masses of the nation to various ends (good, trivial, or hurtful, according to the mind of the rich person).

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
Unto This Last, ch. 2 (1860)
 
Added on 20-Feb-14 | Last updated 20-Feb-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Ruskin, John

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)]
 
Added on 13-Feb-14 | Last updated 13-Feb-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Seneca the Younger

In my eyes riches have a certain place, in yours they have the highest; in fine, I own my riches, yours own you.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On the Happy Life” [De Vita Beata]“, 22.5 [tr. Basore (1932)]
 
Added on 6-Feb-14 | Last updated 6-Feb-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Seneca the Younger

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, 1.11.2 (1776)
 
Added on 30-Jan-14 | Last updated 30-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Smith, Adam

Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy, or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All privilege based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American — both of them equally so. Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood — the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Letter to S. Stanwood Menken (10 Jan 1917)
 
Added on 29-Jan-14 | Last updated 15-Jun-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) Russian anarchist, political theorist
“Federalism, Socialism, Anti-Theologism” (Sep 1867)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-Jan-14 | Last updated 24-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Bakunin, Mikhail

It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, ch. 4 “In the World” (1931)
    (Source)
 
Added on 23-Jan-14 | Last updated 4-Dec-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Smith, Logan Pearsall

The sheltering of upper income children in private schools not only accelerates the deterioration of public education, it hides its consequences from precisely those people who could do something about it.

Hodding Carter III
Hodding Carter III (1935-2023) American journalist and politician [William Hodding Carter III]
“In Public Schools, Class Will Tell,” New York Times (13 Jun 1990)
 
Added on 22-Jan-14 | Last updated 22-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Carter, Hodding III

Riches are often abused but seldom refused.

proverb
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Danish proverb
 
Added on 16-Jan-14 | Last updated 21-Sep-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics:
More quotes by ~Proverbs and Sayings

The Stately Homes of England,
How beautiful they stand,
To prove the upper classes
Have still the upper hand.

Noël Coward (1899-1973) English playwright, actor, wit
“The Stately Homes of England” (1938)

Satire on Felicia Hemens, "The Homes of England" (1849).
 
Added on 13-Jan-14 | Last updated 13-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Coward, Noël

Never trust a country where the rich live behind high walls and tinted windows. That is a place that is not prospering as one country. That is a place where the rich not only say, “I don’t want you to see how I live,” but “I don’t want to see how you live.”

Thomas Friedman (b. 1953) American journalist, columnist, author
“Tinted Windows,” New York Times (23 Jun 1997)
 
Added on 9-Jan-14 | Last updated 9-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Friedman, Thomas

A new church […] a church which will declare that the difference in the death rate between the classes and the masses is evidence of murder done for money.

Henry Demarest Lloyd
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847-1903) American political activist and journalist
Man, the Social Creator, ch. 5 (1906)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Jan-14 | Last updated 6-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Lloyd, Henry Demerest

Riches rather enlarge than satisfy Appetites.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 4048 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Jan-14 | Last updated 7-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

Indeed, I know of no country where the love of money occupies as great a place in the hearts of men, or where people are more deeply contemptuous of the theory of permanent equality of wealth.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, Vol. 1, pt. 1, ch. 3 (1835) [tr. Goldhammer]
 
Added on 1-Jan-14 | Last updated 1-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Tocqueville, Alexis de

Aristocracy has three successive ages, — the age of superiorities, the age of privileges, and the age of vanities; having passed out of the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies away in the third.

[L’aristocratie a trois âges successifs: l’âge des supériorités, l’âge des privilèges, l’âge des vanités; sortie du premier, elle dégènère dans le second et s’éteint dans le dernier.]

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) French writer, politican, diplomat
Memoirs from Beyond the Grave [Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe], Book 1, ch. 1 “The Vallé-aux-loups” (1848-1850) [tr. Kline]

    Alt. trans.:
  • Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiorities, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.
  • Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.
 
Added on 30-Dec-13 | Last updated 31-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Chateaubriand, Francois-Rene

The practical work of today is to abolish the cannibals of competition, warriors of supply and demand, tyrants of monopoly, monsters of the market, devourers of men, women and children, buyers and sellers of life.

Henry Demarest Lloyd
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847-1903) American political activist and journalist
Man, the Social Creator, ch. 5 (1906)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Dec-13 | Last updated 27-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Lloyd, Henry Demerest

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expense, and my expense is equal to my wishes.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
Memoirs of My Life and Writings (1796)
 
Added on 26-Dec-13 | Last updated 26-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Gibbon, Edward

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.

g k chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)
 
Added on 12-Dec-13 | Last updated 12-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

Having given all he had,
He then is very rich indeed.

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
The Way of Life, 81 [tr. Blakney (1955)]
 
Added on 5-Dec-13 | Last updated 5-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Lao-tzu

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.

g k chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)
 
Added on 21-Nov-13 | Last updated 21-Nov-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

Riches are a trust. …
Power is a trust. …
Talents are a trust too; that is the condition of their increase. They must be put out to use, or they will ruin the steward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1831-07-21)
 
Added on 7-Nov-13 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Aug-13 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 9:23ff (Jer 9:23-24) [tr. NRSV (1989 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
[KJV (1611)]

Let the sage boast no more of his wisdom, nor the valiant of his valour, nor the rich man of his riches! But if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, I rule with kindness, justice and integrity on earth; yes, these are what please me -- it is Yahweh who speaks.
[JB (1966), 9:22-23]

The wise should not boast of their wisdom,
nor the strong of their strength,
nor the rich of their wealth.
If any want to boast,
they should boast that they know and understand me,
because my love is constant,
and I do what is just and right.
These are the things that please me.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
[GNT (1976)]

"Let the sage not boast of wisdom, nor the valiant of valour, nor the wealthy of riches! But let anyone who wants to boast, boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, who acts with faithful love, justice, and uprightness on earth; yes, these are what please me," Yahweh declares.
[NJB (1985), 9:22-23]

Let not the wise glory in their wisdom;
Let not the strong glory in their strength;
Let not the rich glory in their riches.
But only in this should one glory:
In being earnestly devoted to Me.
For I GOD act with kindness,
Justice, and equity in the world;
For in these I delight
-- declares GOD.
[RJPS (2023 ed.), 9:22-23]

 
Added on 28-Jun-13 | Last updated 21-Apr-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 1. Old Testament

I pray we are still a young and courageous Nation; that we have not grown so old and fat and prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us — dollars and all.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1947-05-07), House of Representatives
    (Source)

Speaking on spending in support of the Truman Doctrine, supporting countries threatened by the Soviet Union. Recorded in the Congressional Record, Vol. 93, Part 4, for this date.
 
Added on 12-Jun-13 | Last updated 26-Apr-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Lyndon

Munny will buy a pretty good dog, but it wont buy the wag ov hiz tale.

[Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 14 “A Ghost” (1874)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Mar-13 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man’s, I mean.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 40, epigraph (1897)
 
Added on 18-Feb-13 | Last updated 26-Jan-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Twain, Mark

If the reactionary man, who thinks of nothing but the rights of property, could have his way, he would bring about a revolution; and one of my chief fears in connection with progress comes because I do not want to see our people, for lack of proper leadership, compelled to follow men whose intentions are excellent, but whose eyes are a little too wild to make it really safe to trust them.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
    (Source)
 
Added on 12-Feb-13 | Last updated 11-Sep-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

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” [No. 518]
    (Source)

An abbreviated form, used in memes, omits sentences 2-4, but is often presented in text as the full quotation.

 
Added on 11-Feb-13 | Last updated 17-Oct-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Rogers, Will

For prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Adversity,” Essays, No. 5 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Feb-13 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

The virtue of Prosperity is temperance; the virtue of Adversity is fortitude.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Adversity,” Essays, No. 5 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Feb-13 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

Prosperity has damn’d more Souls, than all the Devils together.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3963 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Jan-13 | Last updated 7-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

The absence of effective State, and, especially, National, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Dec-12 | Last updated 7-Aug-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.

[Sich mit Wenigem begnügen ist schwer, sich mit Vielem begnügen noch schwerer.]

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 89 (1880) [tr. Wister (1883)]
    (Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

To be satisfied with little is hard, to be satisfied with a lot is impossible.
[tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
 
Added on 10-Dec-12 | Last updated 21-Sep-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von

Make it thy chief Design and thy great Business, not to be Rich and Great: but so to live in this World that thou mayest reasonably believe thou has God for thy Friend.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 939 (1725)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Nov-12 | Last updated 16-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next.
One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Nov-12 | Last updated 17-Jul-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.

roosevelt - the object of government is the welfare of the people - wist.info quote

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Nov-12 | Last updated 10-Jul-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”
“What commandments?” he asked.
Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
“I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?”
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.

[Καὶ ἰδοὺ εἷς προσελθὼν αὐτῷ εἶπεν Διδάσκαλε τί ἀγαθὸν ποιήσω ἵνα σχῶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθός εἰ δὲ θέλεις εἰς τὴν ζωὴν εἰσελθεῖν τήρησον* τὰς ἐντολάς. Λέγει αὐτῷ Ποίας Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν* Τὸ Οὐ φονεύσεις Οὐ μοιχεύσεις Οὐ κλέψεις Οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις τίμα τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ νεανίσκος Ταῦτα πάντα ἐφύλαξα τί ἔτι ὑστερῶ. Ἔφη αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Εἰ θέλεις τέλειος εἶναι ὕπαγε πώλησόν σου τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ δὸς [τοῖς] πτωχοῖς καὶ ἕξεις θησαυρὸν ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ δεῦρο ἀκολούθει μοι. Ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ νεανίσκος τὸν λόγον (τοῦτον) ἀπῆλθεν λυπούμενος ἦν γὰρ ἔχων κτήματα πολλά.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 19: 16-22 [GNT (1976)]
    (Source)

The first commandments given are a portion the Decalogue (see Exodus 20:12-16, Deut. 5:16-20), the ones not oriented toward God. The commandment to love your neighbor is from Leviticus 19:18.

This passage is paralleled in Mark 10:17-22 and Luke 18:18-23.

Jesus describes the Greatest Commandments in Matthew 22:36-40.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
[KJV (1611)]

And there was a man who came to him and asked, 'Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.' He said, 'Which?' 'These:' Jesus replied 'You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother, and: you must love your neighbour as yourself.' The young man said to him, 'I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?' Jesus said, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me'. But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
[JB (1966)]

And now a man came to him and asked, 'Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.' He said, 'Which ones?' Jesus replied, 'These: You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false witness. Honour your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' The young man said to him, 'I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?' Jesus said, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
[NJB (1985)]

A man approached him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus said, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments.”
The man said, “Which ones?”
Then Jesus said, “Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Honor your father and mother,[a] and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
The young man replied, “I’ve kept all these. What am I still missing?”
Jesus said, “If you want to be complete, go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me.”
But when the young man heard this, he went away saddened, because he had many possessions.
[CEB (2011)]

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
[NIV (2011 ed.)]

Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. Also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]

 
Added on 10-Oct-12 | Last updated 17-Feb-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 2. New Testament

It is an embarrassment to the possessor to have more than he needs.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], #1063 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
 
Added on 3-Oct-12 | Last updated 20-Feb-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Publilius Syrus

Still, I do not mean to find fault with the accumulation of property, provided it hurts nobody, but unjust acquisition of it is always to be avoided.

[Nec vero rei familiaris amplificatio nemini nocens vituperanda est, sed fugienda semper iniuria est.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 1, ch. 8 (1.8) / sec. 25 (44 BC) [tr. Miller (1913)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Not but that a moderate desire of riches, and bettering a man's estate, so long as it abstains from oppressing of others, is allowable enough; but a very great care ought always to be taken that we be not drawn to any injustice by it.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

The enlargement of fortune is blameless, while no man suffers by its increase; but injury is forever to be avoided.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

Nor indeed is the mere desire to improve one's private fortune, without injury to another, deserving of blame; but injustice must ever be avoided.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Nor, indeed, is the increase of property, without harm to any one, to be blamed; but wrong-doing for the sake of gain is never to be tolerated.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Not that we have any fault to find with the innocent accumulation of property; it is the unjust acquisition of it of which we must beware.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

Of course, no one should criticize an increase in a family's estate that harms no one else, but it should never involve breaking the law.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

 
Added on 27-Sep-12 | Last updated 8-Sep-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

If you are rich and are worth your salt, you will teach your sons that though they may have leisure, it is not to be spent in idleness; for wisely used leisure merely means that those who possess it, being free from the necessity of working for their livelihood, are all the more bound to carry on some kind of non-remunerative work in science, in letters, in art, in exploration, in historical research-work of the type we most need in this country, the successful carrying out of which reflects most honor upon the nation.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1899-04-10), “The Strenuous Life,” Hamilton Club, Chicago
    (Source)
 
Added on 31-Jul-12 | Last updated 12-Feb-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered — not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
    (Source)
 
Added on 19-Jun-12 | Last updated 29-May-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Jun-12 | Last updated 9-Nov-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by King, Martin Luther

“Poverty,” Pitt exclaimed, “is no disgrace but it is damned annoying.” In the contemporary United States it is not annoying but it is a disgrace.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Affluent Society, ch. 23, sec. 6 (1958)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-May-12 | Last updated 14-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.

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)
 
Added on 24-Apr-12 | Last updated 18-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Affluent Society, ch. 1, sec. 1 (1958)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Apr-12 | Last updated 14-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

I only ask that Fortune send
A little more than I shall spend.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1858) “Contentment,” st. 3
    (Source)
 
Added on 16-Feb-12 | Last updated 7-Apr-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr.

Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps.

proverb
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
 
Added on 15-Feb-12 | Last updated 21-Sep-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by ~Proverbs and Sayings

A prodigal starts with ten thousand pounds, and dies worth nothing; a miser starts with nothing, and does worth ten thousand pounds. It has been asked which has had the best of it? I should presume the prodigal; he has spent a fortune — but the miser has only left one; — he has lived rich, to die poor; the miser has lived poor, to die rich; and if the prodigal quits life in debt to others, the miser quits it, still deeper in debt to himself.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 131 (1822)
    (Source)
 
Added on 31-Jan-12 | Last updated 26-Dec-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

The Prodigal robs his Heir, the Miser himself.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 4722 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 25-Jan-12 | Last updated 7-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

Mr. David Stockman has said that supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy — what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“Recession Economics,” New York Review of Books (1982-02-04)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Jan-12 | Last updated 29-Aug-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

I know a great many rich men and I have read about a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we envy the rich?

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1896-10-29), “The Chicago and New York Gold Speech,” McKinley League, Carnegie Hall, New York City
 
Added on 21-Dec-11 | Last updated 9-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

Yes! ready money is Aladdin’s lamp.

Lord Byron
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 12, st. 12 (1823)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Dec-11 | Last updated 26-Mar-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Byron, George Gordon, Lord

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. But there is another harm; and it is evident that we should try to do away with that. The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech, Providence, Rhode Island (23 Aug 1902)
 
Added on 8-Nov-11 | Last updated 7-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

Money often costs too much, and power and pleasure are not cheap.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3
    (Source)

Based on a course of lectures by that name first delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).
 
Added on 21-Oct-11 | Last updated 25-Feb-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

But among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

g k chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Miscellany of Men, “The Miser and His Friends” (1912)
    (Source)

In a similar vein, in "The Paradise of Thieves," The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914), Chesterton has the character Muscari say:

To be clever enough to get all that money,
one must be stupid enough to want it.

 
Added on 18-Jul-11 | Last updated 13-Sep-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

Licinius, trust a seaman’s lore:
Steer not too boldly to the deep,
Nor, fearing storms, by treacherous shore
Too closely creep.
Who makes the golden mean his guide,
Shuns miser’s cabin, foul and dark,
Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride
Are envy’s mark.
 
[Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 2, # 10, l. 1ff (2.10.1-8) (23 BC) [tr. Conington (1872)]
    (Source)

To Licinius Varro Murena, who was later executed as a conspirator against Augustus.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

The safest way of life, is neither
To tempt the Deeps, nor whilst foul weather
You fearfully avoid, too near
The shore to steer.
He that affects the Golden Mean,
Will neither want a house that's clean,
Nor swell unto the place of showres
His envy'd Towres.
[tr. Fanshaw; ed. Brome (1666)]

Wise they, that with a cautious fear
Not always thro the Ocean Steer,
Nor, whilst they think the Winds will roar,
Do thrust too near the rocky Shore:
To those that choose the golden Mean:
The Waves are smooth, the Skies serene;
They want the baseness of the Poors retreat,
And envy'd Houses of the Great.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach,
So shalt thou live beyond the reach
Of adverse fortunes pow'r;
Not always tempt the distant deep,
Nor always timorously creep
Along the treach'rous shore.
He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
Imbitt'ring all his state.
[tr. Cowper (1782?)]

O Licinius, you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to envy.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

If thou wouldst live secure and free,
Thou wilt not keep far out at sea,
Licinius, evermore;
Nor, fearful of the gales that sweep
The ocean wide, too closely creep
Along the treacherous shore.
The man, who with a soul serene
Doth cultivate the golden mean,
Escapes alike from all
The squalor of a sordid cot,
And from the jealousies begot
By wealth in lordly hall.
[tr. Martin (1864)]

Licinius, wouldst thou steer life's wiser voyage,
Neither launch always into deep mid-waters,
Nor hug the shores, and, shrinking from the tempest,
Hazard the quicksand.
He who elects the golden mean of fortune,
Nor where dull squalor rots the time-worn hovel,
Nor where fierce envy storms the new-built palace,
Makes his safe dwelling.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]

Neither always tempt the deep,
Nor, Licinius, always keep,
Fearing storms, the slippery beach:
Such the rule of life I teach.
Golden is the middle state;
Love the middle gifts of fate,
Not the sloven squalid cot,
Proud and envied palace not.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]

Better, Licinius, wilt thou live, by neither
Tempting the deep for ever, nor, while tempests
Cautiously shunning, by too closely hugging
Shores that are treach'rous.
He who the golden mean adopts, is ever
Free from the sorrows of a squalid dwelling; --
Free from the cares attending on the envied
Halls of the wealthy.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]

Licinius, better wilt thou live by neither urging
Alway out to sea, nor, while on guard 'gainst storms
Thou shudderest, by pressing an evil shore
Too close.
Whoever courts a golden mean is safe
To escape the squalor of a mouldered roof.
And shrewd to escape a paJace that may
Be grudged to him.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]

Safer thou'lt sail life's voyage, if them steer
Neither right out to sea, nor yet, when rise
The threat'ning tempests, hug the shore too near,
Unwisely wise.
What man soe'er the golden mean doth choose,
Prudent will shun the hovel's foul decay;
But with like sense, a palace will refuse
And vain display.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]

Better wilt thou live, Licinius, by neither always pressing out to sea nor too closely hugging the dangerous shore in cautious fear of storms. Whoso cherishes the golden mean, safely avoids the foulness of an ill-kept house and discreetly, too, avoids a hall exciting envy.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]

Licinius, would you live aright,
Tempt not the high seas evermore,
Nor, fearing tempests, in your fright
Too closely hug the dangerous shore.
Who loves the golden mean is free
And safe from grime -- the grime a house
Harbours in eld; his modesty
Earns not the envy mansions rouse.
[tr. Mills (1924)]

Sail not too far to be safe, O Licinius!
Neither too close to the shore should you steer.
Rashness is foolish, and how ignominious
Cowardly fear!
He who possesses neither palace nor hovel
(My little flat would be half way between)
Hasn't a house at which paupers must grovel
Yet it is clean.
[tr. Adams (1928)]

Licinius, to live wisely shun
The deep sea; on the other hand,
Straining to dodge the storm don't run
Too close in to the jagged land.
All who love safety make their prize
The golden mean and hate extremes:
Mansions are envied for their size,
Slums pitied for their rotting beams.
[tr. Michie (1963)]

Licinius, life makes better sense
Lived neither pushing farther and farther
To sea, nor always hugging the dangerous
Shore, shaking at the thought of storms.
Cherish a golden mean and stay
Exempt from a filthy hovel
And exempt from the envy
A mansion excites.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

You'll do better, Licinius, not to spend your life
Venturing too far out on the dangerous waters,
Or else, for fear of storms, staying too close in
To the dangerous rocky shoreline, That man does best
Who chooses the middle way, so he doesn't end up
Living under a roof that's going to ruin
Or in some gorgeous mansion everyone envies.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]

Better will you live, O Licinius, not always urging yourself out upon the high seas, nor ever hugging the insidious shore in fear of storms. He who esteems the golden mean safely avoids the squalor of a wretched house and in sobriety, equally shuns the enviable palace.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

You’ll live more virtuously, my Murena,
by not setting out to sea, while you’re in dread
of the storm, or hugging fatal shores
too closely, either.
Whoever takes delight in the golden mean,
safely avoids the squalor of a shabby house,
and, soberly, avoids the regal palace
that incites envy.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

 
Added on 13-Jun-11 | Last updated 19-Jul-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Horace

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 23. Isaiah 10: 1ff (Isa 10:1-3) [tr. NIV (2011 ed.)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain.
[KJV (1611)]

You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people. That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans. What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth? You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners.
[GNT (1976)]

Woe to those who enact unjust decrees, who compose oppressive legislation to deny justice to the weak and to cheat the humblest of my people of fair judgement, to make widows their prey and to rob the orphan. What will you do on the day of punishment, when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you run for help and where will you leave your riches, to avoid squatting among the captives or falling among the slain?
[NJB (1985)]

Ha! Those who write out evil writs and compose iniquitous documents, to subvert the cause of the poor, to rob of their rights the needy of My people; that widows may be their spoil, and fatherless children their booty! What will you do on the day of punishment, When the calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, And how will you save your carcasses from collapsing under [fellow] prisoners, from falling beneath the slain?
[JPS (1985)]

Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, to make widows their spoil and to plunder orphans! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth, so as not to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain?
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]

 
Added on 25-Apr-11 | Last updated 21-Apr-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 1. Old Testament

Away with complaints; for he is not poor, who has enough of things to use. If stomach, lungs, and feet are all in health, the wealth of kings can give you nothing more.

[Tolle querellas:
Pauper enim non est, cui rerum suppetit usus.
si ventri bene, si lateri est pedibusque tuis, nil
divitiae poterunt regales addere maius.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 12 “To Iccius,” l. 4ff (1.12.4-6) (20 BC) [tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Do waye therefore thy practysde plaintes, bemone thy selfe no more.
For he that hath the use of goodes, cannot be judged poore.
If that thy bellie, sydes, and féete, and all thy partes be well,
Not wealth of kinges can adde to owght that doth this wealth excell.
[tr. Drant (1567)]

Therefore leave off complaining that thou'rt poor:
For he's not poor, whom fortune does produce,
What e're is necessary for his use.
If thou canst get good Diet, and warm Cloaths,
Caesars Estate can't give thee more than those.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]

My Friend complain no more,
He that hath things for use is never poor.
If Thou hast cleanly Food and Cloaths enough,
What more than this can kingly Wealth bestow?
[tr. Creech (1684)]

The cease complaining, friend, and learn to live.
He is not poor to whom kind Fortune grants,
Even with a frugal hand, what Nature wants.
Are you with food, and warmth, and raiment blest?
Not royal treasures are of more possest.
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Hush then vain murmurs -- throw complaint aside!
He ne'er is poor, whose wants are well supplied.
Possess'd of health and food and raiment, know
Arabia's treasures can no more bestow.
[tr. Howes (1845)]

Away with complaints! for that man is by no means poor, who has the use or everything, he wants. If it is well with your belly, your back, and your feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

A truce to murmuring: with another's store
To use at pleasure, who shall call you poor?
Sides, stomach, feet, if these are all in health,
What more could man procure with princely wealth?
[tr. Conington (1874)]

No more complaining, friend! for poor
That man is not who can insure
Whate'er for life is needful found.
Let your digestion be but sound.
Your side unwrung by spasm or stitch.
Your foot unconscious of a twitch,
And could you be more truly blest,
Though of the wealth of kings possessed?
[tr. Martin (1881)]

Away with complaining -- for he is not a poor man who has a sufficiency for every need. If you have health in your stomach, your side, and your feet, the riches of kings can give you nothing superior.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

So stop complaining! The man is certainly not poor
Who has everything that he needs. A king’s own ransom
Can’t add a bit more, if your stomach and lungs
And feet are all right.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

He is not poor who has enough of things to use.
If it is well with your belly, chest and feet,
the wealth of kings can give you nothing more.
[Bartlett's (1968)]

Stop complaining.
No one is a pauper who has all the things he needs.
If your belly's good and your lungs and feet are healthy,
no royal treasure could add the slightest bit to yours.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

Stop complaining!
No one is poor who has enough of all he needs.
If your belly is full and your health is good and your feet
Don’t hurt, why would an emperor’s wealth be worth having?
[tr. Raffel (1983) "Ixus"]

No one is poor who can use whatever he has.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]

No more complaining!
The man who enjoys the use of commodities isn’t poor.
If stomach, chest, and feet are in good condition, then kings
with all their wealth can add nothing of greater value.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]

Stop complaining:
He’s not poor whose enjoyment of things suffices.
If your lungs, stomach and feet are healthy, royal
Wealth can add nothing.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

 
Added on 25-Apr-11 | Last updated 26-Dec-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Horace

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Hobbit, ch. 18 “The Return Journey” [Thorin] (1937)
    (Source)
 
Added on 22-Mar-11 | Last updated 25-Aug-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Tolkien, J.R.R.

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)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

For nothing is a greater sign of a narrow, mean, and sordid spirit, than to dote on riches.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

For there is not a greater symptom of a narrow and little mind, than the love of wealth.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

For nothing so truly characterizes a narrow, grovelling disposition as to love riches.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

For nothing shows so narrow and small a mind as the love of riches.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Shun the love of money, for there is no surer sign of a narrow, grovelling spirit.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

Nothing is as good an index of a narrow and trivial spirit as the love of wealth.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

 
Added on 9-Dec-10 | Last updated 8-Sep-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

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.

[Οἱ δὲ βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν ἐμπίπτουσιν εἰς πειρασμὸν καὶ παγίδα καὶ ἐπιθυμίας πολλὰς ἀνοήτους καὶ βλαβεράς αἵτινες βυθίζουσιν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους εἰς ὄλεθρον καὶ ἀπώλειαν. ῥίζα γὰρ πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἡ φιλαργυρία ἧς τινες ὀρεγόμενοι ἀπεπλανήθησαν ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως καὶ ἑαυτοὺς περιέπειραν ὀδύναις πολλαῖς.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
1 Timothy 6: 9-10 [KJV (1611)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

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.)]

 
Added on 11-Nov-10 | Last updated 25-Mar-25
Link to this post | 3 comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Bible, Vol. 2. New Testament

No condition so low but may have Hopes; none so high but may have Fears.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3555 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 3-Nov-10 | Last updated 7-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

Fetters of Gold are still Fetters; and silken Cords pinch.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 1522 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Sep-10 | Last updated 7-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

To have gold brings fear, to have none brings grief.

[L’haver oro è un timore, il non haver un dolore.]

James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in Italian” (1659) [compiler]
    (Source)
 
Added on 10-Sep-10 | Last updated 3-Mar-26
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Howell, James

It is not enough to tell me you worked hard to get your gold.  So does the Devil work hard.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Essay (1863-10), “Life without Principle,” Atlantic Monthly, No. 72
    (Source)

Writing of the California Gold Rush.

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.
 
Added on 9-Sep-10 | Last updated 19-Feb-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Thoreau, Henry David

Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Seditions and Troubles,” Essays, No. 15 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Jun-10 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

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)
 
Added on 7-May-10 | Last updated 30-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Bacon, Francis

Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Gulliver’s Travels, Part 4 “Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms,” ch. 5 (1726)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Apr-10 | Last updated 5-Mar-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Swift, Jonathan

Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who can not find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1785-10-28) to James Madison
    (Source)
 
Added on 10-Mar-10 | Last updated 25-Feb-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Jefferson, Thomas

To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The League of Frightened Men, ch. 7 [Wolfe] (1935)
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Jan-10 | Last updated 24-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Stout, Rex

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 2, ch. 4, § 23 (1951)
    (Source)
 
Added on 12-Oct-09 | Last updated 16-Apr-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Hoffer, Eric

Thus it comes to pass, that our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1753-06-26), The Adventurer, No. 67
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-Sep-09 | Last updated 10-Oct-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Samuel

Wealth is not a crime; poverty is not a virtue — although the virtuous have generally been poor. There is only one good, and that is human happiness; and he only is a wise man who makes himself and others happy.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1886-11-14), “A Lay Sermon,” American Secular Union annual congress, Chickering Hall, New York City
    (Source)
 
Added on 11-Sep-09 | Last updated 17-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

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, freethinker, orator
Speech (1886-11-14), “A Lay Sermon,” American Secular Union annual congress, Chickering Hall, New York City
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Sep-09 | Last updated 25-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1886-11-14), “A Lay Sermon,” American Secular Union annual congress, Chickering Hall, New York City
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Aug-09 | Last updated 11-Oct-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

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.

Galbraith - selfishness - wist_info

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.
  • The above quotation was from a speech given, that was then entered into the Congressional Record, Vol. 109, Senate (1963-12-18).
  • This material was reworked into an article "Let us begin: An invitation to action on poverty," in Harper's (1964-03), which was in turn again entered into the Congressional Record, Vol. 110 (1964).
  • 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)]
 
Added on 19-May-09 | Last updated 18-Aug-24
Link to this post | 17 comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

HECUBA: Then no man on earth is truly free,
All are slaves of money or necessity.
Public opinion or fear of prosecution
forces each one, against his conscience,
to conform.

ἙΚΆΒΗ:[φεῦ.
οὐκ ἔστι θνητῶν ὅστις ἔστ’ ἐλεύθερος·
ἢ χρημάτων γὰρ δοῦλός ἐστιν ἢ τύχης
ἢ πλῆθος αὐτὸν πόλεος ἢ νόμων γραφαὶ
εἴργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνώμην τρόποις.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 864ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]
    (Source)

When Agamemnon claims he cannot help her get revenge, as much as he'd like to if he were free to assist, because he has to pay attention to the sentiments of the Greek army.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Alas! there's no man free: for some are slaves
To gold, to fortune others, and the rest,
The multitude or written laws restrain
From acting as their better judgement dictates.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

Vain is the boast of liberty in man;
A slave to fortune, or a slave to wealth,
Or by the people or the laws restrain’d,
He dares not act the dictates of his will
[ed. Ramage (1864)]

Ah, among mortals is there no man free!
To lucre or to fortune is he slave:
The city's rabble or the laws' impeachment
Constrains him into paths his soul abhors.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

Ah! there is not in the world a single man free; for he is a slave either to money or to fortune, or else the people in their thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following the dictates of his heart.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Show me the mortal man who's really free.
He's either a slave to money or to chance.
Or the pressure of the mob or legal code
curbs him from acting as his will dictates.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Ah! But there’s no such thing as a free man! All men are slaves, Agamemnon! Slaves to money, to Fate, to the cries of the masses, to the written laws! They all stop him from doing what he wants.
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]

Then no one is free
in this world. He’s chained to money, or to luck, or to majority
opinion, or to law. Any way you look at it,
he’s still a slave.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

Alas!
there is not in the world a single man who is free;
for he is a slave either to money or to fortune,
or else the mob, or fear of law, prevents him
from following the dictates of his heart.
[ed. Yeroulanos (2016)]

There is no mortal who is free. Either he is a slave to money or fortune, or the city’s mob or its laws make him live otherwise than he would wish.
[tr. @sentantiq (2016)]

Ha!
No one who is mortal is free --
We are either the slave of money or chance;
Or the majority of people or the city’s laws
Keep us from living by our own judgment.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020)]

 
Added on 2-Apr-09 | Last updated 22-Jul-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Euripides

Society is composed of two great classes — those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.

[La Société est composée de deux grandes classes : ceux qui ont plus de dîners que d’appétit, et ceux qui ont plus d’appétit que de dîners.]

Nicolas Chamfort
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. 3, ¶ 194 (1795) [tr. Hutchinson (1902)]
    (Source)

The same translation is used by Merwin (1969)(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Society is made up of two large divisions: those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

Society is made up of two large groups: people who have more food than appetite, and people who have more appetite than food.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Society can be divided into two main categories: people who have more appetite than dinners and those who have more dinners than appetite.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 145]

 
Added on 19-Feb-09 | Last updated 20-Jan-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

Moralists tell you of the evils of wealth and station, and the happiness of poverty. I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I have gained.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 9 (1855)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Feb-09 | Last updated 2-Apr-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Smith, Sydney

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
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, ch. 9 [Mrs. March] (1869)
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Jan-09 | Last updated 26-Apr-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Alcott, Louisa May

Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there isn’t a God.

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Other People” (1931)
 
Added on 7-Jan-09 | Last updated 23-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Smith, Logan Pearsall

To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober.

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, ch. 4 “In the World” (1931)
    (Source)
 
Added on 26-Nov-08 | Last updated 27-Nov-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Smith, Logan Pearsall

Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Hercules Furens, Part 1, l.255 [Amphitryon] [tr. Miller (1917)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.: "Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."
 
Added on 21-Nov-08 | Last updated 2-Feb-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Seneca the Younger

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1936-06-27), Acceptance, Renomination for President, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia
    (Source)

(Source (Audio)). The above is the official version of the speech. At the podium, the last section, starting with "Now, as always," was said by Roosevelt as:

Now, as always, for over a century and a half, the flag and the Constitution stand against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike, and the flag and the Constitution stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection.
 
Added on 3-Oct-08 | Last updated 17-Dec-25
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

It is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not necessary to be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart filled with divine affection. No matter whether you are rich or poor, treat your wife as though she were a splendid flower, and she will fill your life with perfume and with joy.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Oct-08 | Last updated 4-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

You had better be the emperor of one loving and tender heart, and she the empress of yours, than to be king of the world. The man who has really won the love of one good woman in this world, I do not care if he dies in the ditch a beggar, his life has been a success.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
    (Source)
 
Added on 23-Sep-08 | Last updated 4-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Further Extracts from Note-books of Samuel Butler (1934)
 
Added on 15-Aug-08 | Last updated 5-Sep-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Butler, Samuel

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)

Attr. by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae, bk. 12, ch. 2, sct. 13 (2nd cent. A.D.).
 
Added on 11-Jul-08 | Last updated 2-Feb-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Seneca the Younger

A good reputation is more valuable than money.

[Honesta fama melior pecunia est.]

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 108
 
Added on 21-Apr-08 | Last updated 15-Feb-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Publilius Syrus

If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Speech, Legal Aid Society of New York (1951-02-16)
    (Source)

On ensuring that accused persons did not lack for counsel needed for a fair trial.
 
Added on 18-Apr-08 | Last updated 20-Mar-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Hand, Learned

I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Letter to his Niece (15 Sep 1842)
 
Added on 27-Mar-08 | Last updated 16-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Macaulay, Thomas Babington

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

FDR - test our progress abundance of those who have much enough for those who have too little - wist.info quote

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1937-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.
    (Source)

(Source (Audio))
 
Added on 31-Aug-07 | Last updated 8-Oct-25
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 23-Jul-07 | Last updated 14-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Paine, Thomas