“The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.”

—  P.T. Barnum

Ch. 20: "Preserve your integrity" http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneygetting/moneygetting_chap21.html
Art of Money Getting (1880)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts it…" by P.T. Barnum?
P.T. Barnum photo
P.T. Barnum 17
American showman and businessman 1810–1891

Related quotes

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“Titles are tinsel, power a corruptor, glory a bubble, and excessive wealth, a libel on its possessor.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Article 27
"Declaration of Rights" http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/declarat.html (1812)

Andrew Carnegie photo

“Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American businessman and philanthropist

Source: The Best Fields for Philanthropy, 1889, p. 684

Frank Miller photo

“Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on… none of you are safe.”

Frank Miller book Batman: Year One

Source: Batman: Year One

Taisen Deshimaru photo

“Human wisdom alone is not enough, it is not complete. Only universal truth can provide the highest wisdom. Take away the word Zen and put Truth or Order of the Universe in its place.”

Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) Japanese Buddhist monk

Online interview http://www.zen-deshimaru.com/EN/sangha/deshimaru/q-r/0101.htm
Context: Religions remain what they are. Zen is meditation. Meditation is the foundation of every religion. People today feel an intense need to go back to the source of religious life, to the pure essence in the depths of themselves which they can discover only through actually experiencing it. They also need to be able to concentrate their minds in order to find the highest wisdom and freedom, which is spiritual in nature, in their efforts to deal with the influences of every description imposed upon them by their environment. Human wisdom alone is not enough, it is not complete. Only universal truth can provide the highest wisdom. Take away the word Zen and put Truth or Order of the Universe in its place.

J. Howard Moore photo

“The ideal universe is a universe so ordered or natured as to allow its inhabitants to understand and dominate it sufficient to satisfy their desires, and inhabited by beings with desires so poised and assorted that there is not only not mutual inhibition of desires, but such a dovetailing and intertwining of the consciousnesses that there is mutual aid in the satisfaction of desire—a universe responsive to the whims of its inhabitants, and inhabited by beings socially harmonious and helpful.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Social Ideal, p. 146

Thomas C. Schelling photo

“The next possessors of nuclear weapons may be Iran, North Korea, or possibly some terrorist bodies. Is there any hope that they will have absorbed the nearly universal inhibition against the use of nuclear weapons, or will at least be inhibited by the recognition that the taboo enjoys widespread acclaim?”

Thomas C. Schelling (1921–2016) American economist

Nobel Prize lecture (2005)

Russell L. Ackoff photo

“A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say “no” but none to say “yes”. Bureaucrats can find an infinite number of reasons for rejecting any proposed change, but can find none for accepting it.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

Ackoff (2006) A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management. p. 12.
2000s

Martin Luther photo

“The soul can do without everything except the word of God, without which none at all of its wants are provided for.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Source: On Christian Liberty

Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“I say, then, that the universe and all its parts both received their first order from divine providence, and are at all times administered by it.”
Dico igitur providentia deorum mundum et omnes mundi partes et initio constitutas esse et omni tempore administrari.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Book II, section 30
De Natura Deorum – On the Nature of the Gods (45 BC)

John Ruskin photo

“Of human work none but what is bad can be perfect in its own bad way.”

John Ruskin book The Stones of Venice

Volume II, chapter VI, section 24 http://books.google.com/books?id=AwICAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Of+human+work+none+but+what+is+bad+can+be+perfect+in+its+own+bad+way%22&pg=PA189#v=onepage.
The Stones of Venice (1853)

Related topics