quotations about wealth
When Wealth walks in at the Door, the Press Agent comes in through the Window.
GEORGE ADE
"The Through Train", Knocking the Neighbors
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
"The Deserted Village"
A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Among the 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
A Miscellany of Men
One of the biggest favours you can do yourself and your wealth is to address that gnawing "want", find tools to stop it getting out of control.
DAWN RIDLER
"Big wealth killers", Biz News, March 30, 2017
Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it. Just as long as there is the enthusiasm of the chase they enjoy it; but when they begin to look around, and think of settling down, they find that that part by which joy enters is dead in them. They have spent their lives in heaping up colossal piles of treasure, which stand, at the end, like the pyramids in the desert sands, holding only the dust of kings.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
I account the office of benefactor, or almoner, to which God appoints all those whom he has favored with wealth, one of the most honorable and delightful in the world. He never institutes a channel for the passage of His bounties that those bounties do not enrich and beautify.
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Gold-Foil
Many people dream of inheriting a large sum of money. We spend time imagining the cars we will buy, the homes we will live in and the holidays we will take once we hit "the good times". However, most wealth advisers will tell you that those who inherit money face many challenges -- not least of which is maintaining this wealth and not squandering, in a short space of time, what may have taken generations to accrue.
JACQUES BROWN
"Inherited wealth is not an easy windfall", iAfrica, March 24, 2017
Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed;
Then wealth was discovered and soon after gold
Which quickly became more honoured than strength or beauty.
For men, however strong or beautiful,
Generally follow the train of a richer man.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Wealth held by a class and used ambitiously becomes as despotic as an absolute monarchy, and has in its hands manners, customs, laws, institutions, and governments themselves.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
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.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Riches", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
I spend my life hustling for small money, staying one step ahead of de police. But I will not do dat all my life. You see, I done read Napoleon Hill and as a thinking man, and with de grace of God, I go be millionaire before I reach thirty.
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland
The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds they were not worth so much trouble.
CHARLES READE
Christie Johnstone
Wealth makes an ugly person beautiful to look on and an incoherent speech eloquent; and wealth alone can enjoy pleasure even in sickness and can conceal its miseries.
SOPHOCLES
fragment, The Sons of Aleus
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
MARK TWAIN
American Claimant
He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
A rich woman seems to have all her banknotes about her, guarding her virtue, like a cuirass, in the lining of her corset.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Madame Bovary
The use we make of our fortune determines its sufficiency. A little is enough if used wisely, and too much if expended foolishly.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Our incomes should be like our shoes, if too small, they will gall and pinch us, but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip. Wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
He who has wealth has friends.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya