quotations about wealth
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
Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The wise man knoweth where to stop, as he runneth in the race of fortune,
For experience of old hath taught him, that happiness lingered midway;
And many in hot pursuit have hasted to the goal of wealth,
But have lost, as they ran, those apples of gold--the mind and the power to enjoy it.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
The most wanton torture is that of the rich trying to kill time.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
REX STOUT
The Red Box
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
That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
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
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
When Wealth walks in at the Door, the Press Agent comes in through the Window.
GEORGE ADE
"The Through Train", Knocking the Neighbors
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
Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
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
Riches are but a means, or instrument; and the virtue of an instrument lies in its use.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
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
Those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
He who has wealth has friends.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya
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