Quotes about money
page 16

Josh Billings photo

“If thare iz enny human being that i thoroughly loath, it iz the one who haz nothing tew boast ov but hiz money--a mere pimp tew hiz welth.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Josh Billings: His Works, Complete (1873)

Murray N. Rothbard photo
John Perkins photo
Gene Simmons photo

“"You can't buy love with money." Only a poor person says that.”

Gene Simmons (1949) Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actor

What I've Learned (July 2002)

Stephen Baxter photo

“He set no great value on money, or, perhaps, to speak properly, he set on it no more than its true value.”

Stephen Baxter (1957) author

Source: Ages in Chaos (2003), Chapter 8, “A cursed country where one has to shape everything out of a block” (p. 68)

Samuel Butler photo
David Lloyd George photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

““The poor and the middle class work for money.” “The rich have money work for them.””

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Adam Smith photo

“It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 471.

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Cornel West photo

“The rule of Big Money and its attendant culture of cupidity and mendacity has so poisoned our hearts, minds and souls that a dominant self-righteous neoliberal soulcraft of smartness, dollars and bombs thrives with little opposition.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

"America is spiritually bankrupt. We must fight back together." The Guardian, January 14, 2018 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/14/america-is-spiritually-bankrupt-we-must-fight-back-together

Pink (singer) photo
Götz Aly photo
Julius Streicher photo

“They are hated because they satisfy their greed according to Talmudic principles. In the Jewish lawbook "Talmud" the Jews are told that the possessions of gentiles were "ownerless property", which the Jew was allowed to obtain through deceit and cheating. Whatever the "profession" may be called where the Jew earns his money, everywhere he remains a Jew. Such criminal behavior must inevitably provoke the hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism) and fighting repulsion. The fight that the Nazarene led 2000 years ago against the Jewish usurers resulted in a gruesome way of suffering and his slaughter at Calvary. The judgement passed by Jesus on the Jews marks the Jewish people for all time:
"Ye are of your father the devil! He was a murderer from the beginning."”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

John 8:44-45
Sie werden gehasst, weil sie ihre Gier nach Geld nach talmudischen Grundsätzen befriedigen. Im jüdischen Gesetzbuch "Talmud" wird den Juden gesagt, dass der Besitz der Nichtjuden "herrenloses Gut" sei, den der Jude durch Wucher, durch Betrug und Übervorteilung an sich bringen dürfe. Und wie der "Beruf" auch heißen mag, in dem der Jude sein Geld verdient, überall ist und bleibt er Jude. Solch verbrecherisches Verhalten muss zwangsläufig den Hass gegen die Juden (Antisemitismus) erzeugen und Abwehrkämpfe heraufbeschwören. Der Kampf, den der Nazarener vor 2000 Jahren gegen die jüdischen Zinseintreiber führte, endete mit einem grauenvollen Leidensweg und seiner Hinschlachtung auf Golgatha. Das Urteil, das Jesus Christus über die Juden fällte, kennzeichnet das Volk der Juden für alle Zeiten:
"Ich habt zum Vater nicht Gott, sondern den Teufel. Er war ein Verbrecher und Menschenmörder von Anfang an". (Joh. VIII | 44,45.)
Foreword to the book "Juden stellen sich vor", Stürmer publishing house, 1934

“If markets were truly efficient, then you shouldn't be able to make any money rebalancing.”

William J. Bernstein (1948) economist

Source: The Four Pillars of Investing (2002), Chapter 14, Getting Started, Keeping It Going, p. 290.

Marvin Gaye photo

“Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
'Fore we see it you take it
Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler.”

Marvin Gaye (1939–1984) American singer-songwriter and musician

Inner City Blues, co-written with James Nyx, Jr.
Song lyrics, What's Going On (1971)

Davy Crockett photo

“We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.”

Davy Crockett (1786–1836) American politician

Speech in the US House of Representatives on April 2, 1828, as quoted in The Life of Colonel David Crockett (1884) by Edward Sylvester Ellis.

Anton Mauve photo

“Dear friend! I am still staying in Oosterbeek as you can see but I will now leave in 2 days. The last days I spent on two small paintings ordered by Mr. de Visser. I painted them in a happy atmosphere... I send them to you because they were still wet when I sent them away and I could hardly do that to Mr. de Visser. Please, do you want to give them a layer of egg-varnish and when you discover here or there a badly seen dash, or you see a chance to make a witty thing in the paintings, oh chap, I pray you do so, because if he doesn't like them, I'll get no bread and have nasty problems, because I need the money so badly..”

Anton Mauve (1838–1888) Dutch painter (1838–1888)

translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Anton Mauve's brief, in het Nederlands:) Waarde Vriend! Ik zit zoo als gij ziet nog altijd te Oosterbeek doch zal nu over 2 dagen vertrekken de laatste tijd heb ik aan twee kleine schilderijtjes besteed voor den Heer de Visser, ik heb ze onder een gelukkige atmosfeer geschilderd.. ..ik zend ze jou omdat ze nat waren toen ik ze afzond en ik dat moeyelijk aan den Heer de Visser kon doen, wilt gij ze s.v.p. met een eivernisje bestrijken en vindt gij ze hier of daar eene slecht geziene greep, of ziet gij gemakkelijk kans er nog eene geestige zet in te doen, och kerel ik bid je doe het, want als ze hem niet bevielen en ik krijg geen duiten dan zit ik er leelijk mee in, ik heb ze hoog noodig..
In a letter of Mauve from Oosterbeek 4 Nov. 1867, to Willem Maris in The Hague; from the original letter https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/109, RKD Archive, The Hague
1860's

Gertrude Stein photo

“It bothers a lot of people, but like you said, it's nobody's business, it came from the Judeo-Christian ethos, especially Saint Paul the bastard, but he was complaining about youngsters who were not really that way, they did it for money, everybody suspects us or knows but nobody says anything about it.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Stein's comment about homosexuality and homophobia, from a conversation with Samuel Steward recounted in Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (1977)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“The answer to any question starting, "Why don't they—" is almost always, "Money."”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Shooting Destination Moon (1950)

Maxime Bernier photo
David Orrell photo

“Money, having freed itself from the physical universe, has become number itself, and finance a strange form of mathematical alchemy.”

David Orrell (1962) Canadian mathematician

Source: The Other Side Of The Coin (2008), Chapter 3, One Versus Plurality, p. 89

Roberto Saviano photo
Murray N. Rothbard photo
Masha Gessen photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Clint Eastwood photo

“With that kind of money, I could have invaded some country.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

On the $31 million cost of making a film
"Figures and quotes", Bristol Evening Post (June 19, 2007), p. 36.

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
John Maynard Keynes photo
Marshall Faulk photo

“I'd not only be cheating myself, but I'd be cheating my teammates if I continued to make the money that I was making and wasn't producing or putting out to the level of payment that I was receiving. That's just me.”

Marshall Faulk (1973) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back, Pro Football Hall of Fame memb…

The Seattle Times 2005-09-08.

Marcus Aurelius photo
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey photo
Andy Kessler photo

“but then I remembered how crass it is to talk money or stocks with university types.”

Andy Kessler (1958) American writer

Part VII, The Margin Surplus, Ghana a Goner, p. 281.
Running Money (2004) First Edition

“If he suddenly falls in love with someone else, a husband may not start wanting a divorce; but if he suddenly makes a lot of money, he usually will.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“Boughton together with Abbey are making for Harper in New York drawings called "Picturesque Holland".... now I say to myself if the Graphic and Harper send their draughtsmen to Holland they would perhaps not be unwilling to accept a draughtsman from Holland [Vincent himself], if he can furnish some good work for not too much money. I should prefer to be accepted on regular monthly wages rather than to sell a drawing now and then at a relatively high price.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from The Hague, The Netherlands, Summer 1883; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 288) p. 21
1880s, 1883

Paul Thurrott photo

“Apple's fans are more interested in spending money than they are with facts. … That the lackluster iPhone 4S can sell so well in a market dominated by more capable Android handsets (not to mention Windows Phones) only bolsters that notion.”

Paul Thurrott (1966) American podcaster, author, and blogger

Apple Sells 4 Million iPhone 4S Handsets at Launch http://windowsitpro.com/windows/apple-sells-4-million-iphone-4s-handsets-launch in Windows IT Pro (17 October 2011)

Donald Rumsfeld photo

“Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.”

Donald Rumsfeld (1932) U.S. Secretary of Defense

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

Edwin Lefèvre photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“I am in this same river. I can't much help it. I admit it: I'm racist. The other night I saw a group (or maybe a pack?) or white teenagers standing in a vacant lot, clustered around a 4x4, and I crossed the street to avoid them; had they been black, I probably would have taken another street entirely. And I'm misogynistic. I admit that, too. I'm a shitty cook, and a worse house cleaner, probably in great measure because I've internalized the notion that these are woman's work. Of course, I never admit that's why I don't do them: I always say I just don't much enjoy those activities (which is true enough; and it's true enough also that many women don't enjoy them either), and in any case, I've got better things to do, like write books and teach classes where I feel morally superior to pimps. And naturally I value money over life. Why else would I own a computer with a hard drive put together in Thailand by women dying of job-induced cancer? Why else would I own shirts made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, and shoes put together in Mexico? The truth is that, although many of my best friends are people of color (as the cliche goes), and other of my best friends are women, I am part of this river: I benefit from the exploitation of others, and I do not much want to sacrifice this privilege. I am, after all, civilized, and have gained a taste for "comforts and elegancies" which can be gained only through the coercion of slavery. The truth is that like most others who benefit from this deep and broad river, I would probably rather die (and maybe even kill, or better, have someone kill for me) than trade places with the men, women, and children who made my computer, my shirt, my shoes.”

Source: The Culture of Make Believe (2003), p. 69

Murray N. Rothbard photo
Jorge Majfud photo

“Money and generous benefits can easily alter a person’s political outlook. Ideology follows the money.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action, (2013), p. 301

Jimmy Kimmel photo

“There's something comforting and pleasurable about watching people win money.”

Jimmy Kimmel (1967) American talk show host and comedian

On hosting the television game show Set for Life — reported in Gary Levin (January 11, 2007) "TV is riding a wave of prime-time game shows", Asbury Park Press.

M.I.A. photo

“They wanted me to be the face of Coca Cola. I was like 'Wow. Have you guys got any idea what you’re talking about?' Then Pepsi called me the next week. My mother-in-law called me and said 'Oh my God, Maya, they’re offering you so much money.”

M.I.A. (1975) British recording artist, songwriter, painter and director

Quote on corporate sponsorship http://www.nme.com/photos/in-her-own-words-mias-20-sharpest-quotes/172930/16/4#5 reprinted in NME (2010)
Sourced quotes

Henry Dudeney photo

“SEND + MORE = MONEY”

Henry Dudeney (1857–1930) Puzzlist, Mathematical games designer

in Strand Magazine vol. 68 (July 1924), pp. 97 and 214.

Tomáš Baťa photo
Judith Sheindlin photo
William Blum photo
Arsène Wenger photo
Alfred P. Sloan photo

“It was not, however, a matter of interest to me only with respect to my divisions, since as a member of the Executive Committee, I was a kind of general executive and so had begun to think from the corporate viewpoint. The important thing was that no one knew how much was being contributed — plus or minus — by each division to the common good of the corporation. And since, therefore, no one knew, or could prove, where the efficiencies and inefficiencies lay, there was no objective basis for the allocation of new investment. This was one of the difficulties with the expansion program of that time. It was natural for the divisions to compete for investment funds, but it was irrational for the general officers of the corporation not to know where to place the money to best advantage. In the absence of objectivity it was not surprising that there was a lack of real agreement among the general officers. Furthermore, some of them had no broad outlook, and used their membership on the Executive Committee mainly to advance the interests of their respective divisions.
The important thing was that no one knew how much was being contributed—plus or minus—by each division to the common good of the corporation. And since, therefore, no one knew, or could prove, where the efficiencies and inefficiencies lay, there was no objective basis for the allocation of new investment.”

Alfred P. Sloan (1875–1966) American businessman

Source: My Years with General Motors, 1963, p. 48-49

Frederik Pohl photo

“Even money, thought Roger on the way back to his own office, is not a bad bet. Of course, it depends on the stakes.”

Source: Man Plus (1976), Chapter 6, “Mortal in Mortal Fear” (p. 74)

“It is amazing how stupid one can be in graduate school, because while I was puzzling through L1(Y) = Y/V = M1, the income velocity of money, I missed all the fun.”

George Goodman (1930–2014) American author and economics commentator

Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 1, Why Did The master Say "Game"?, p. 8

Toby Keith photo
Paul of Tarsus photo

“For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.”

1 Timothy 6:10 (as quoted in Catholic Bible Douay-Rehims http://www.biblebible.com/text-bible/Catholic-Bible/1_timothy_6.asp)
First Epistle to Timothy

Anacreon photo

“Love for lineage nothing cares.
Tramples wisdom under foot.
Worth derides, and only looks
For money.”

Anacreon (-570–-485 BC) Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns

Odes, XXIX. (XXVIL, b), 5.

“Samuelson, however, hedged his personal bets - by putting some of his own money in Berkshire Hathaway.”

William Poundstone (1955) American writer

Part Three, Arbitrage, The Random Walk Cosa Nostra, p. 125
Fortune's Formula (2005)

Octave Mirbeau photo
Sunil Dutt photo
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke photo

“The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it.”

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English politician and Viscount

Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation (1753)

Harold Wilson photo
R. Venkataraman photo

“Anyone and everyone can join politics today. The day's newspapers were on the table in front of him. All he needs to do is to show enough money towards his electability, enough vote-bank numbers on his side, and he gets a ticket.”

R. Venkataraman (1910–2009) seventh Vice-President of India and the 8th President of India

Gopalkrishna Gandhi in: The value of decency http://hindu.com/2010/12/04/stories/2010120462451500.htm, The Hindu, 4 December 2010

H. Havelock Ellis photo

“Thinking in its lower grades is comparable to paper money, and in its higher forms it is a kind of poetry.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

Source: The Dance of Life http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300671.txt (1923), Ch. 3

Mark Knopfler photo
Gene Wolfe photo

“They based their extrapolations on numbers. That worked as long as money, which is easily measured numerically, was the principle motivating force in human affairs. But as time progressed, human actions became responsive instead to a multitude of incommensurable vectors.”

"The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton", Universe 7 (1977), ed. Terry Carr, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

Albrecht Thaer photo

“I began to reconcile myself to my forlorn condition, but still I was not what I wished to be: the worst of all was, I had no friend; not a human being that understood me. I wrote daily to my friend Leisewitz; he resided in Hanover, and was just as unhappy as myself, except that he had some friends, and plenty of money. In this respect I was differently situated, and although in want of money to buy books, I was determined not to be any expense to my father. Some watches, snuff-boxes, and rings, presents I had received in Gottingen, soon found their way to the hands of Jews at half price. I was even, against my will, driven to the necessity of accepting small fees from mechanics and peasants. This cut me to the heart; but I could not help myself. The following circumstance, however, overcame me more than all: My father was a man of great knowledge and experience, but, like all old men, he remained faithful to the old method of practice. I visited many of his patients, and without telling me exactly what mode of treatment I was to pursue, he only observed, "You will act so and sohowever, I saw the patients had confidence in my father only, and not in me; they wished me to be his tool, and I therefore followed his mode of practice, and thus lost several of his patients, who could have been saved had I followed my own method.”

Albrecht Thaer (1752–1828) German agronomist and an avid supporter of the humus theory for plant nutrition

My Life and Confessions, for Philippine, 1786

Akshay Agrawal photo

“It was not easy. It was a classic case of the owner believing in the idea more than anyone else. But now when I look back, I feel thankful that we got no funding, else we'd have used all the money in lesser things. This forced us to re-invent ourselves from the ground up. The no-money module works”

Akshay Agrawal (1998) Serial Social Entrepreneur

A Class Apart - Mid Day 23rd October 2016 http://www.mid-day.com/articles/zomato-for-schools-mumbai-boy-akshay-agrawal-creates-website-to-rank-schools/17706190

Gregory Benford photo
Lil Wayne photo

“Young Money militia and I am the commissioner. You ain't gotta say Weezy cause the "F" is for finisha.”

Lil Wayne (1982) American rapper, singer, record executive and businessman

6 Foot 7 Foot, written with Peter Panky, Jr., Seandrae Crawford, William Attaway, and Irving Burgie
2010s, Tha Carter IV (2011)

Jesse Jackson photo
Phil Brooks photo
Björn Ulvaeus photo

“We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuburent, full of energy and ambition.”

Björn Ulvaeus (1945) Swedish musician

Daily Telegraph, 5 Jul 2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3555750/ABBAs-Bjorn-Ulvaeus-and-Benny-Anderson-We-will-never-reform.html

Donald E. Westlake photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“Gentlemen, We Have Run Out Of Money; Now We Have to Think”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

This quote, or a minor variation of it ("Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.") is also attributed to (Sir) Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), the famed New Zealand chemist and physicist. http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/November/Pages/%E2%80%98Gentlemen,WeHaveRunOutOfMoney;NowWeHavetoThink%E2%80%99.aspx
Misattributed

Joseph Goebbels photo
L. Frank Baum photo
R. H. Tawney photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I had a couple of endorsements but they never came to nothing. I don't want any. I don't need them. If the people who give them don't think Latins are good enough, I don't think they are good enough. The hell with them. I make endorsements in Spanish countries, and give the money to charity.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "'Nobody Does Anything Better Than Me in Baseball,' Says Roberto Clemente....Well, He's Right," by Roy Blount, Jr. (as C.R. Ways), in The New York Times Magazine (April 9, 1972), p. 42; reprinted as "Clemente's Time of Honor Has Come" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1qNhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xGwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7369%2C3839734 in The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, April 25, 1972), p. 31
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

Warren Farrell photo
G. Edward Griffin photo
Gary Johnson photo
Margaret Thatcher photo
Warren Farrell photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Michael Lewis photo
Jayant Narlikar photo
Roberto Saviano photo
Andrew Carnegie photo
Thomas Carlyle photo
Artimus Pyle photo
Andrew Carnegie photo
André Maurois photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Reported by Jerry Useem, "What Does Donald Trump Really Want?" http://fortune.com/2000/04/03/what-does-donald-trump-really-want/, Fortune, 3 April 2000.
2000s

Karen Gillan photo