Wealth

"Get rich, if you will — you take great risks. But Christianity does not say to any man, You must be worth only so much, extend your business only so far. It says, Use your riches for the glory of God. If they once usurp His place, woe to you!"

"Through life's dark road his sordid way he wends, An incarnation of fat dividends."

"If thou art rich, thou art poor; For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee."

"There is a burden of care in getting riches, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account at last to be given up concerning them."

"But Christian faith knows that wealth means responsibility, and that responsibility may come to mean only heavy arrears of sin."

"The man is mechanically turned, and made for getting…. It was very prettily said that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it"

"Opum furiata cupido."

"All gold and silver rather turn to dirt! As 'tis no better reckon'd, but of those Who worship dirty gods."

"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!"

"It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the kingdom of heaven, but the fact that riches have him."

""I was told", continued Egremont, "that an impassable gulf divided the Rich from the Poor; I was told that the Privileged and the People formed Two Nations, governed by different laws, influenced by different manners, with no thoughts or sympathies in common; with an innate inability of mutual comprehension"."

"If you will be rich, you must be content to pay the price of falling into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition; and if that price be too high to pay, then you must be content with the quiet valleys of existence, where alone it is well with us; kept out of the inheritance, but having instead God for your portion — your all-sufficient and everlasting portion—peace and quietness and rest in Christ."

"Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly."

"If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel."

"Those whom we strive to benefit Dear to our hearts soon grow to be; I love my Rich, and I admit That they are very good to me. Succor the poor, my sisters,—I While heaven shall still vouchsafe me health Will strive to share and mollify The trials of abounding wealth."

"I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

"Opes invisæ merito sunt forti viro, Quia dives arca veram laudem intercipit."

"What riches give us let us then inquire: Meat, fire, and clothes. What more? Meat, clothes, and fire. Is this too little?"

"No, he was no such charlatan— Count de Hoboken Flash-in-the-Pan— Full of gasconade and bravado, But a regular, rich Don Rataplane, Santa Claus de la Muscavado, Senor Grandissimo Bastinado! His was the rental of half Havana And all Matanzas; and Santa Ana, Rich as he was, could hardly hold A candle to light the mines of gold Our Cuban owned."

"Repente dives nemo factus est bonus."

"The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil."

"Worldly wealth is the devil's bait; and those whose minds feed upon riches recede, in general, from real happiness, in proportion as their stores increase."

"Riches are the pettiest and least worthy gifts which God can give a man. What are they to God's word? Yea, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and health, or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, wisdom? Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore our Lord God commonly gives riches to foolish people to whom He gives nothing else."

"Nature does not conquer the world to God. It never has. It never will. In America, with its vast abounding wealth, its grand expanse of prairie, its reach of river, and its exuberant productiveness, there is danger that our riches will draw us away from God, and fasten us to earth; that they will make us not only rich, but mean; not only wealthy, but wicked. The grand corrective is the cross of Christ, seen in the sanctuary where the life and light of God are exhibited, and where the reverberation of the echoes from the great white throne are heard."

"This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor."

"I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good."

"If by the consecration of my earthly possessions to some extent, I can make the Christian character practically more lovely, and illustrate, in my own case, that the highest enjoyments here are promoted by the free use of the good things intrusted to us, what so good use can I make of them?"

"How many threadbare souls are to be found under silken cloaks and gowns!"

"Much learning shows how little mortals know; Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy."

"Can wealth give happiness? look round and see What gay distress! what splendid misery! Whatever fortunes lavishly can pour, The mind annihilates, and calls for more."

"Our Lord commonly giveth Riches to such gross asses, to whom he affordeth nothing else that is good."

"You often ask me, Priscus, what sort of person I should be, if I were to become suddenly rich and powerful. Who can determine what would be his future conduct? Tell me, if you were to become a lion, what sort of a lion would you be?"

"The little sister of the Poor * * * * The Poor, and their concerns, she has Monopolized, because of which It falls to me to labor as A Little Brother of the Rich."

"Let none admire That riches grow in hell; that soil may best Deserve the precious bane."

"Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum."

"Embarras des richesse."

"Nemini credo, qui large blandus est dives pauperi."

"Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace; If not, by any means get wealth and place."

"O what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!"

"The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during his life, will pass away unwept, unhonoured and insung no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him."

"Good thoughts his only friends;His wealth a well-spent age;The earth his sober inn,And quiet pilgrimage."

"The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity."

"Technology is begining to differentiate the haves and the have nots."

"Penny wise, pound foolish."

"If I was as rich as Rockefeller I'd be richer than Rockefeller, because I'd do a bit of window cleaning on the side."

"Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities."

"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed."

"With unimportant exceptions, such as bankruptcies in which some of a company’s losses are borne by creditors, the most that owners in aggregate can earn between now and Judgment Day is what their businesses in aggregate earn. True, by buying and selling that is clever or lucky, investor A may take more than his share of the pie at the expense of investor B. And, yes, all investors feel richer when stocks soar. But an owner can exit only by having someone take his place. If one investor sells high, another must buy high. For owners as a whole, there is simply no magic – no shower of money from outer space – that will enable them to extract wealth from their companies beyond that created by the companies themselves."

"I'm not technically rich, but I do have a lot of shit that I don't need, and I refuse to share with others."

"The horseman serves the horse, The neatherd serves the neat, The merchant serves the purse, The eater serves his meat; 'T is the day of the chattel, Web to weave, and corn to grind; Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind."