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The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

— Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

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More quotes by Emil Cioran

He who has never envied the vegetable has missed the human drama.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

Love, a tacit agreement between two unhappy parties to overestimate each other.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

There is only this swarm of dying creatures stricken with longevity, all the more hateful in that they are so good at organizing their agony.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Our place is somewhere between being and nonbeing — between two fictions.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

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Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Étienne de La Boétie Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.

Jean de La Bruyère Les Caractères (1688)

Virtue’s true reward is happiness itself, for which the virtuous work, whereas if they worked for honor, it would no longer be virtue, but ambition.

Thomas Aquinas

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.