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Money Quotes

Karl Marx and Robert Kiyosaki are tied for the most entries here, which is about as wide a spread of opinion as one page can hold. The sourced quotes lean towards the sceptics. Thoreau’s journal for 1838 says the richest man is the one whose pleasures are the cheapest. Chesterton, in his novel The Flying Inn (1914), is less polite about the rich.

“The lack of money is the root of all evil” is credited to Mark Twain, and it does appear in a posthumous piece of his from 1905. It had already been in print, though. Wikiquote finds it in 1872, set in quotation marks as if readers would know it, and a similar remark about gold in a magazine from 1859.

Random quote on Money

Most quoted on money:

Children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Paul of Tarsus

When Gold argues the cause, eloquence is impotent.

Publilius Syrus

Gold and silver are but merchandise, as well as cloth or linen; and that nation that buys the least, and sells the most, must always have the most money.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal — that there is no human relation between master and slave.

Leo Tolstoy What shall We Do Then? (1886)

O the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments [are] and past tracing out his ways [are]! For “who has come to know Jehovah’s mind, or who has become his counselor?”

Paul of Tarsus

Earthly wealth does not belong to us, as those who have never thought about this erroneously believe. Otherwise, it always and forever would remain in our possession. But it changes hands constantly, thereby proving that it is given only for us to watch over temporarily.

Ignatius Brianchaninov

Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants’ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Aphorisms (1880)

Never get involved in a venture with a man who inherited his money and didn’t earn any himself. He’ll assume he’s smarter than you are, just because he’s rich and you’re not, and he’ll expect you to bow down to his greatness because for all his life people have.

Charles Sheffield The Spheres of Heaven (2001)

The spark for a relationship might come for free—a look, a word. But the fuel to keep it going would always be expensive. Money might not buy happiness, but the lack of money could buy endless unhappiness for any two people.

Kenn Kaufman Kingbird Highway (1997)

Those that have wealth must be watchful and wary,
Power, alas! naught but misery brings!

Thomas Haynes Bayly

Who hath not heard the rich complain
Of surfeits, and corporeal pain?
He barr'd from every use of wealth,
Envies the ploughman's strength and health.

John Gay Fables (1727)

Covetousness ... chooses to love and care for images stamped on gold instead of God.

John Cassian

What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative; what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her!

William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair (1847)

Those who take money are bound to carry out the work for which they get a fee, while I, because I refuse to take it, am not obliged to talk with anyone against my will.

Xenophon

Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made,
To turn a penny in the way of trade.

William Cowper Table Talk (1782)

Gratitude plants the seed for abundance.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Is passing large sums of wealth on to your children good for them or right for society?

Bill Gates

The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth, but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock.

Henry George

The usual definition of the functions of money are that money is a medium of exchange, a measure of value, a standard of deferred payment and a store of value.

Norman Angell Sir Norman Angell in The Story of Money (1930)

Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the rest;
Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!

Edward FitzGerald

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