He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The jests of the rich are ever successful.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
I am not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
The trouble is that rich people, well-to-do people, very often don’t really know who the poor are; and that is why we can forgive them, for knowledge can only lead to love, and love to service. And so, if they are not touched by them, it’s because they do not know them.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Her voice is full of money.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Her voice is full of money.
—Unknown
The greatest and the most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least,—the privilege of making others happy.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Riches do not delight us so much with their possession, as torment us with their loss.
—Dick Gregory (1932–2017) American Comedian, Civil Rights Activist
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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
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
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
He hath riches sufficient, who hath enough to be charitable.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
He who knows he has enough is rich.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
O, what a world of vile ill-favored faults, looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The wretchedness of being rich is that you live with rich people. To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and stay sober.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
With the great part of rich people, the chief employment of riches consists in the parade of riches.
—George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author
I don’t mind their having a lot of money, and I don’t care how they employ it, but I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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 (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
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
Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Agur said, “Give me neither poverty nor riches”; and this will ever be the prayer of the wise. 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. But 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 (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
The rich were dull and they drank too much or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And how someone had said to Julian, “Yes, they have more money.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Wouldst thou multiply thy riches?—diminish them wisely.—Or wouldst thou make thine estate entire?—divide it charitably.—Seeds that are scattered increase, but hoarded up they perish.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them who despair of them; and none are worse than they when riches come to them.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by other men.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Satiety comes of riches, and contumaciousness of satiety.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The acquisition of riches has been to many not an end to their miseries, but a change in them: The fault is not in the riches, but the disposition.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his sons the hardships that made him rich.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
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
So our Lord God commonly gave riches to those gross asses to whom he vouchsafed nothing else.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
For just as poets love their own works, and fathers their own children, in the same way those who have created a fortune value their money, not merely for its uses, like other persons, but because it is their own production. This makes them moreover disagreeable companions, because they will praise nothing but riches.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The much-maligned idle rich have received a bad rap: They have maintained their wealth while many There is scarcely an instance of a man who has made a fortune by speculation and kept it. Andrew Carnegie of the energetic rich, aggressive real estate operators, corporate acquirers, oil drillers, etc. have their fortunes disappear.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
Riches enlarge rather than satisfy appetites.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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 are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Be not penny-wise; riches have wings; sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
If your riches are yours, why don’t you take them with to the other world?
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Riches amassed in haste will diminish, but those collected by little and little will multiply.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.
—Gamaliel Bailey (1807–59) American Journalist