"INCOME, n. The natural and rational gauge and measure of respectability, the commonly accepted standards being artificial, arbitrary and fallacious; for, as "Sir Sycophas Chrysolater" in the play has justly remarked, "the true use and function of property (in whatsoever it consisteth --coins, or land, or houses, or merchant- stuff, or anything which may be named as holden of right to one's own subservience) as also of honors, titles, preferments and place, and all favor and acquaintance of persons of quality or ableness, are but to get money. Hence it followeth that all things are truly to be rated as of worth in measure of their serviceableness to that end; and their possessors should take rank in agreement thereto, neither the lord of an unproducing manor, howsoever broad and ancient, nor he who bears an unremunerate dignity, nor yet the pauper favorite of a king, being esteemed of level excellency with him whose riches are of daily accretion; and hardly should they whose wealth is barren claim and rightly take more honor than the poor and unworthy.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ambrose Bierce in: The Devil's Dictionary, Digireads.com Publishing, 1 January 2004, p. 73
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pauperism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Pauperism
47 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Pauperism β
Related Quotes
"Many of them fell into the slough of pauperism, and were saved from starvation by public doles."
"A reporter meets interesting people. If he endures, he will get to know princes and presidents, popes and paupers, prβ¦"
"In 1890 "General" Booth attracted further public attention by the publication of a work entitled "In Darkest England,β¦"
"As regards pauperism, the government subsidizes Protestant and Catholic orphan houses."
"Important efforts were made to attract French colonists to the country, the colonization of Algeria appearing as a meβ¦"
"Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannoβ¦"
"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."
"Society, during the last hundred years, has been alternately perplexed and encouraged, respecting the two great questβ¦"
"But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal β there is one human institution that makes aβ¦"
"All that is seen is my form, ant, fly, prince, and pauper."