quotations about wealth
Almost every wealthy man in this country will tell you that his greatest satisfaction and happiest days were when he was emerging from poverty into a competency; when he first felt the tonic from the swelling of his small savings towards the stream of fortune, and knew that want would no longer dog his steps.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN
The Miracle of Right Thought
Successfully navigating wealth is a bit like flying a jetliner -- two, well-matched wings are required. One strong and one weak wing won't do; failure of either wing is catastrophic. In many families that flounder, the "planning wing" has received disproportionate attention -- trusts are established, advisors are in place, tax strategies are adopted and investment approaches are calibrated. The planning is superb. But, these complex structures comprise only one wing of the plane, and the other is equally important: family "culture."
MATTHEW WESLEY
"Wealth Planning Structures Must Match Family Cultures", Wealth Management, April 5, 2017
Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.
G. K. CHESTERTON
A Miscellany of Men
Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
REX STOUT
The Red Box
Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
Those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The wise man knoweth where to stop, as he runneth in the race of fortune,
For experience of old hath taught him, that happiness lingered midway;
And many in hot pursuit have hasted to the goal of wealth,
But have lost, as they ran, those apples of gold--the mind and the power to enjoy it.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
In my years of working with people and their money, I can tell you that money is not their true wealth. Now, I am fully for working on and accumulation of one's net worth. Your net worth is the total of your assets minus your liabilities. Net worth is what we have to show for years of hard work, and rightfully it should add up to something significant. But your money, or even your net worth, is not your true wealth. Rather, True Wealth is all that money can't buy.
LOUANN SCHULFER
"Schulfer: Wealth money can't buy", Stevens Point Journal, February 3, 2016
If you are rich, you have to be an idiot not to stay rich. And if you are poor, you have to be really smart to get rich.
JOHN GREEN
"The Greek Debt Crisis Explained in Four Minutes", YouTube
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
MARK TWAIN
American Claimant
We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
A rich woman seems to have all her banknotes about her, guarding her virtue, like a cuirass, in the lining of her corset.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Madame Bovary
Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it. Just as long as there is the enthusiasm of the chase they enjoy it; but when they begin to look around, and think of settling down, they find that that part by which joy enters is dead in them. They have spent their lives in heaping up colossal piles of treasure, which stand, at the end, like the pyramids in the desert sands, holding only the dust of kings.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
The most wanton torture is that of the rich trying to kill time.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
Wealth is the Conjurer's Devil,
Whom, when he thinks he hath, the Devil hath him.
GEORGE HERBERT
The Church-Porch
He who has wealth has friends.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya
Wealth builders stay motivated and inspire others to keep on keeping on.
KEN DOGHUDJE
"Forget about building wealth if you don't have these 14 skills and abilities", NAIJ, January 29, 2016
We may see the small value God has for riches by the people he gives them to.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
Wealth makes an ugly person beautiful to look on and an incoherent speech eloquent; and wealth alone can enjoy pleasure even in sickness and can conceal its miseries.
SOPHOCLES
fragment, The Sons of Aleus
Riches are but a means, or instrument; and the virtue of an instrument lies in its use.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms