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
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
Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
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 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
This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
He that is proud of riches is a fool. For if he be exalted above his neighbors because he hath more gold, how much inferior is he to a gold mine.
—Jeremy Taylor
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 Clergyman, Writer
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
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 (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Riches, though they may reward virtue, cannot cause it.—He is much more noble who deserves a benefit than he who bestows one.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The prouder a man is, the more he thinks he deserves, and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Think and grow rich.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
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
About the only difference between the poor and the rich, is this, the poor suffer misery, while the rich have to enjoy it.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The bottom line is in heaven.
—Edwin H. Land (1909–91) American Inventor, Physicist
The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Riches ennoble a man’s circumstances, but not himself.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Riches enlarge rather than satisfy appetites.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
The jests of the rich are ever successful.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
If I have but enough for myself and family, I am steward only for myself and them; if I have more, I am but a steward of that abundance for others.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
If the search for riches were sure to be successful, though I should become a groom with a whip in my hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
A great estate is a great disadvantage to those who do not know how to use it, for nothing is more common than to see wealthy persons live scandalously and miserably; riches do them no service in order to virtue and happiness; it is precept and principle, not an estate, that makes a man good for something.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher