“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 Unamuno199
19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher 1864–1936Related quotes
“He sets a thief to guard his purse
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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.”
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany
Wer den Daumen auf dem Beutel hat, der hat die Macht. <br class="br">Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869), Stenographische Berichte p. 1017 (left) http://books.google.de/books?id=wm9HAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1017 <br class="br">1860s
Gu Hongming book The Spirit of the Chinese People
page 81
The Spirit of the Chinese People (1915), Chinese Woman
“So little in his purse, so much upon his back.”
Joseph Hall (1574–1656) British bishop
Portrait of a Poor Gallant.
Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man
Letter 3
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer
Volume 2, Ch. 2
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 88
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Cada um tem a sua vaidade, e a vaidade de cada um é o seu esquecimento de que há outros com alma igual.
Leon MacLaren (1910–1994) British philosopher
Leon MacLaren, Nature of Society and Other Essays