It is very iniquitous to make me pay debts, you have no idea, of the pain it gives one.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
If someone takes your time, it is the only debt that can’t be repaid.
—Unknown
Bankruptcy is a sacred state, a condition beyond conditions, as theologians might say, and attempts to investigate it are necessarily obscene, like spiritualism. One knows only that he has passed into it and lives beyond us, in a condition not ours.
—John Updike (1932–2009) American Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer
Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible.—A man might as well have a smoky house and a scolding wife, which are said to be the two worst evils of our life.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Never run into debt, not if you can find anything else to run into.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Buying on the installment plan makes the months shorter and the years longer.
—Unknown
We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Better to go to bed hungry than to wake up in debt.
—Common Proverb
Some people use one half their ingenuity to get into debt, and the other half to avoid paying it.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
The nation is prosperous on the whole, but how much prosperity is there in a hole?
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
Always live within your income, even if you have to borrow money to do so.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
God often pays debts without money.
—Irish Proverb
Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift… The hangover comes the day after.
—Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) American Psychologist, Advice Columnist
You can take a chance with any man who pays his bills on time.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
He that dies pays all his debts.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A small debt produces a debtor; a large one, an enemy.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Nowadays people can be divided into three classes—the haves the have-nots and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves
—Earl Wilson (1907–87) American Broadway Gossip Columnist
Out of debt, out of danger.
—Common Proverb
A man who owes a little can clear it off in a little time, and, if he is prudent, he will: whereas a man, who, by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared…. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt…. We must make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude…. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements…. If we can prevent the Government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
You know it is not my interest to pay the principal, or my principal to pay the interest.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; will be in fear when you speak to him; will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for the second vice is lying, the first is running in debt. A freeborn man ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any man living, but poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
There are but two ways of paying debt—increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Birds have bills too, and they keep on singing
—Unknown
Let us live is as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time look around.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
No blister draws sharper than interest on money.—It works day and night; in fair weather and foul.—It gnaws at a man’s substance with invisible teeth.—It binds industry with its film, as a fly is bound with a spider’s web.—Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang on the fatal mesh, till the long-legged interest devours him.—One had better make his bed of Canada thistles, than attempt to lie at ease upon interest.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One day Donald Trump will discover that he is owned by Lutheran Brotherhood and must re negotiate his debt load with a committee of silent Norwegians who don’t understand why anyone would pay more than $120.00 for a suit.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The creditor hath a better memory than the debtor.
—James Howell (c.1593–1666) Anglo-Welsh Writer, Historian
Debt is to a man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Money is a poor man’s credit card.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul’s support.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Credit is a system whereby a person who cannot pay gets another person who cannot pay to guarantee that he can pay.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A small debt makes a man your debtor, a large one makes him your enemy.
—Seneca the Elder (Marcus Annaeus Seneca) (c.55 BCE–c.40 CE) Roman Rhetorician
Promises make debt, and debt makes promises.
—Dutch Proverb
Man was lost if he went to a usurer, for the interest ran faster than a tiger upon him.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
Debt is the worst poverty.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
If one wants to get out and stay out of debt he should act his wage.
—Unknown
Small debts are like small gun shot; they are rattling around us on all sides and one can scarcely escape being wounded. Large debts are like canons, they produce a loud noise, but are of little danger.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To John I owed great obligation; but John, unhappily, thought fit to publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit.
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721) English Poet, Diplomat
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
—English Proverb