Money Quotes

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

- Samuel Johnson¹

1. The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol II by James Boswell [↩]

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

- Samuel Johnson¹

1. The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol IV, Letter to James Boswell, December 7, 1782, p. 494 [↩]

Many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my monies, and my usuances:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help:
Go to then: you come to me, and you say,
Shylock, we would have monies; You say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me, as you would spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold; monies is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say,
Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness,
Say this, —
Fair sir, you spet on me Wednesday last;
You spurn’d me such a day; another time
You call’d me — dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much monies?

- William Shakespeare¹

1. The Merchant of Venice, Shylock, Act I, scene iii [↩]

As Jesse Owens’ child, your development would not be facilitated by letting you start 100-yard dashes at the 50-yard line.

- Warren Buffett¹

1. Andrew Kilpatrick, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, (Birmingham: APKE, 1994) p. 98 [↩]

Tyler Durden: We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.

Narrator: Martha Stewart.

Tyler Durden: [...] Martha Stewart! Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic; it’s all going down, man. So [...] off with your sofa units and your Strinne green stripe patterns. I say, never be complete. I say, stop being perfect. I say, let’s evolve, and let the chips fall where they may.

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

- John Maynard Keynes¹

1. As quoted in Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy (2000) by Michael Albert, p. 128 [↩]

Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.

- John Wesley¹

1. Sermon 50 “The Use of Money” in The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. (1840) edited by John Emory, Vol. I, p. 446 [↩]

You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

- Deuteronomy 23:19 (ESV)

You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.

- Deuteronomy 23:19 (NASB)

Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.

- Deuteronomy 23:19 (NIV)

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter.

- Benjamin Franklin¹

1. Letter on the Stamp Act, July 1, 1765, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) [↩]

Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.

- Francis Bacon¹

1. De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, Antitheta (1623) [↩]