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Quotes about money

243 quotes from 153 people

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To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIn context
- Morality
Her voice is full of money
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter VIIIn context
- Women
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy⁠—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter IXIn context
- Responsibility
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961The Sun Also Rises (1926), Book II, Chapter 13In context
- Failure
I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.
William Makepeace Thackeray1811–1863Vanity Fair (1848), Chapter XLIIn context
- Comedy
- Virtue
There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter XXVIIIn context
- Freedom
There is no wilderness where I can hide from these things, there is no haven where I can escape them; though I travel to the ends of the earth, I find the same accursed system⁠—I find that all the fair and noble impulses of humanity, the dreams of poets and the agonies of martyrs, are shackled and bound in the service of organized and predatory Greed!
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter XXVIIIIn context
- Economics
Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1885), First Part, XIIn context
- Freedom
There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), Act V, Scene I, spoken by RomeoIn context
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.
William Shakespeare1564–1616King Lear (c. 1606), Act II, Scene IV, spoken by LearIn context
Through tatter’d clothes great vices do appear;
Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it.
William Shakespeare1564–1616King Lear (c. 1606), Act IV, Scene VI, spoken by LearIn context
- Justice
I ask you, what am I? I’m one of the undeserving poor: that’s what I am. Think of what that means to a man.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Pygmalion (1912), Act II, spoken by DoolittleIn context
- Morality
When there is an income-tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income
Plato429–349 BCThe Republic (c. 375 BC), Book IIn context
- Justice
It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense, either by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book II, Chapter IIIIn context
- Government
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
O. Henry1862–1910The Gift of the Magi (1905)In context
- Christmas