“Once the needs of hunger are satisfied — and they are soon satisfied — the vanity, the necessity — for it is a necessity — arises of imposing ourselves upon and surviving in others. Man habitually sacrifices his life to his purse, but he sacrifices his purse to his vanity. He boasts even of his weakness and his misfortunes, for want of anything better to boast of, and is like a child who, in order to attract attention, struts about with a bandaged finger.”
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), III : The Hunger of Immortality
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Miguel de Unamuno 199
19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher 1864–1936Related quotes
“He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours”
The Golden Ass (1999)
Context: He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours
Or bids a sand-glass bleed away his nights,
His days, his loves, his pleasures and his powers.
The burthen of his years
Is Time's soft footfall, Time's soft
Falling
Through his joys and tears.

“He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.”
Wer den Daumen auf dem Beutel hat, der hat die Macht.
Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869), Stenographische Berichte p. 1017 (left) http://books.google.de/books?id=wm9HAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1017
1860s

“So little in his purse, so much upon his back.”
Portrait of a Poor Gallant.

Volume 2, Ch. 2
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)