“Many first possess wealth, and are then possessed by it.”
Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) German psychologist and philosopher
Source: Rhythmen und Runen (1944), p. 253
“The lust of lucre has so totally seized upon mankind, that their wealth seems rather to possess them, than they to possess their wealth.”
Letter 30, 4.
Letters, Book IX
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Pliny the Younger50
Roman writer 61–113Related quotes
“Не does not possess wealth that allows it to possess him.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
“It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.”
Henry David Thoreau book Life Without Principle
Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: I do not know but it is too much to read one newspaper a week. I have tried it recently, and for so long it seems to me that I have not dwelt in my native region. The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You cannot serve two masters. It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.
“The possession of wealth confers honor; it is an invidious distinction.”
Thorstein Veblen book The Theory of the Leisure Class
Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 26
“Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.”
Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) British writer
Source: Short fiction, Companions on the Road (1975), Chapter 2, “The Chalice” (p. 16)
“Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer
To the possession of great wealth with vice.”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto XX, lines 26–27 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
“Wealth should not be seized: god-given wealth is much better.”
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 320.
“Of all thy blessings reckon wealth the least,
For 'tis the least secure of our possessions.”
Alexis (-372–-270 BC) Athenian poet of Middle Comedy
Fabulae Incertae, Fragment 37.
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
III, 1445-49
Jewels of Remembrance (1996)
Context: If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,
don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.
Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,
wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?