Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things: money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humored, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich—that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.
—Henry Fielding (1707-54) English Novelist, Dramatist
The want of money is the root of all evil.
—Samuel Butler
Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy.
—Martin Amis (b.1949) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the “gotta have it” scale.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it’s greedy or loving.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
All work and no play makes jack. With enough jack, Jack needn’t be a dull boy.
—Malcolm Forbes (1919–90) American Publisher
After a certain point, money is meaningless. It ceases to be the goal. The game is what counts.
—Aristotle Onassis (1906–75) Greek Businessperson
It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Art Critic, Social Thinker
Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.
—Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Dramatist
Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Poet, Writer
Money is always there but the pockets change.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
But money, wife, is the true Fuller’s Earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but what it can take out.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Capital is to the progress of society what gas is to a car.
—James Truslow Adams (1878–1949) American Historian, Writer
The Law of Triviality… briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–93) British Historian, Scholar, Novelist, Satirist
Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous concept, swelling or decreasing as the occasion suggests. In the minds of politicians, perhaps more than anywhere, the notion of a million dollars has this accordion-like ability to expand or contract; if they are disposing of it, the million is a pleasing sum, reflecting warmly upon themselves; if somebody else wants it, it becomes a figure of inordinate size, not to be compassed by the rational mind.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canada Journalist, Playwright, Academic, Critic, Novelist
Men are seldom more innocently employed than when they are honestly making money.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
There are people who have money and people who are rich.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition.
—George Samuel Clason (1874–1957) American Businessperson, Author
In its famous paradox, the equation of money and excrement, psychoanalysis becomes the first science to state what common sense and the poets have long known — that the essence of money is in its absolute worthlessness.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher
Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.
—Jack Welch (b.1935) American Businessperson
Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master.
—Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–95)
I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.
—Marilyn Monroe (1926-62) American Actor, Model, Singer
Money, or even power, can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others.
—B. C. Forbes (1880-1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
I’m not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don’t have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That’s the bottom line.
—Ray Charles (1930-2004) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
Money makes up in a measure all other wants in men.
—William Wycherley (1640–1715) English Dramatist
A treasure is to be valued for its own sake and not for what it will buy.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Money was made not to command our will, but all our lawful pleasures to fulfill; shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey — the horse doth with the horseman run away.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
The contempt of money is no more a virtue than to wash one’s hand is one; but one does not willingly shake hands with a man that never washes his.
—Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Dramatist
The great rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or much less than you.
—Katharine Whitehorn (b.1928) English Journalist, Writer, Columnist
When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.
—John Lennon (1940-80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
The darkest hour in the history of any young man is when he sits down to study how to get money without honestly earning it.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.
—Richard DeVos (b.1926) American Businessperson
The goal should not be to make money or acquire things, but to achieve the consciousness through which the substance will flow forth when and as you need it.
—Eric Butterworth
All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Money alone is only a mean; it presupposes a man to use it. The rich man can go where he pleases, but perhaps please himself nowhere. He can buy a library or visit the whole world, but perhaps has neither patience to read nor intelligence to see…. The purse may be full and the heart empty. He may have gained the world and lost himself; and with all his wealth around him … he may live as blank a life as any tattered ditcher.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
The money complex is the demonic, and the demonic is God’s ape; the money complex is therefore the heir to and substitute for the religious complex, an attempt to find God in things.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher
Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.
—Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) German-born American Architect, Academic
I’ve always thought anyone can make money. Making a life worth living, that’s the real test.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman
Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.
—Philip Larkin (1922–85) English Poet, Librarian, Novelist
Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) British Philosopher
The only thing that can console one for being poor is extravagance. The only thing that can console one for being rich is economy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Oh, I wish I were a miser; being a miser must be so occupying.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. It’s one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life out of them, molding them into money.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Indian Hindu Polymath
All currency is neurotic currency.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher
It is true that money cannot buy happiness but it does make it possible for you to enjoy the best that the world has to offer.
—George Samuel Clason (1874–1957) American Businessperson, Author
Like all wage slaves, he had two crosses to bear: the people he worked for and the people he worked with
—Stephen Vizinczey (b.1933) Hungarian-born Canadian Novelist, Literary Critic, Author
If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.
—Billy Graham (1918-91) American Baptist Religious Leader
A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
Draw your salary before spending it.
—Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward) (1834–67) American Humorist, Writer
Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.
—E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Artist
Money is life to us wretched mortals.
—Hesiod (b.1493) Greek Poet, Economist
If you can actually count your money, then you’re not a rich man.
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
I really don’t like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.
—Larry Bird (b.1956) American Sportsperson
Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The price we have to pay for money is sometimes liberty.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
When a fellow says it hain’t the money but the principle o’ the thing, it’s th’ money.
—Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward) (1834–67) American Humorist, Writer
The money men make lives after them.
—Samuel Butler
Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, but gold that’s put to use more gold begets.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Money won’t buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a huge research staff to study the problem.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (1915-77) American Columnist, Author
It frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.
—Groucho Marx (1890-1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Let us all be happy, and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with.
—Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward) (1834–67) American Humorist, Writer
Money is the sinews of love, as of war.
—George Farquhar (1677-1707) Irish Dramatist