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
Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists, when you can ignore them like wise men?
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
A rich man, of cultivated tastes, with every right to gratify them, knowing enough of sorrow to humble his heart toward God, and soften it toward his neighbor — gifted with not only the power but will to do good, and having lived long enough to reap the fruits of an honorable youth in a calm old age — such a man, in spite of his riches, is not unlikely to enter the kingdom of heaven.
—Dinah Craik (1826–87) English Novelist, Poet
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
He who knows he has enough is rich.
—Laozi (b.604BCE–d:Unknown) Chinese Philosopher
Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
The jests of the rich are ever successful.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Author, Playwright, Poet, Physician
It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
No one has ever said it, but how painfully true it is that the poor have us always with them.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Protestant Clergyman, Social Reformer, Abolitionist
Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor, and conscience, to obtain them: it is to pay so dear for them that the bargain is a loss.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Real riches are the riches possessed inside.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
Of rich men it telleth, and strange is the story how they have, and they hanker, and grip far and wide; And they live and they die, and the earth and its glory has been but a burden they scarce might abide.
—William Morris (1834–96) British Designer, Craftsman, Poet, Writer
The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.
—John W. Foster
As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Misery assails riches, as lightning does the highest towers; or as a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks its own boughs, so do riches destroy the virtue of their possessor.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
For a person to build a rich and rewarding life for himself, there are certain qualities and bits of knowledge that he needs to acquire. There are also things, harmful attitudes, superstitions, and emotions that he needs to chip away. A person needs to chip away everything that doesn’t look like the person he or she most wants to become.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Riches do not delight us so much with their possession, as torment us with their loss.
—Dick Gregory
He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.
—Jean de La Bruyere
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
An eager pursuit of fortune is inconsistent with a severe devotion to truth. The heart must grow tranquil before the thought can become searching.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Riches ennoble a man’s circumstances, but not himself.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
If I were rich, says one, “I would — “Illusion! — We often hold firmer to the last crown we have amassed than to the first which we gained.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
A man that hoards up riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass that carries gold and eats thistles.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor