Quotes about money
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“It's okay," said Adrian breezily. He rested his arm casually on the table. "I don't really need a job or extra money. After Rose and I get married, the kids and I'll just live off of her guardian paycheck.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

“You'd be surprised what people will do for money that they wouldn't do for
love.

Myrnin.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bite Club

Love, People

“Justice is expensive. That is why there is so little of it, and it is reserved for those few with enough money and influence to afford it.”

Naomi Novik book Black Powder War

Source: Black Powder War

Justice

“I burn the way money burns.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Way

“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Books, Lying

“They've spent alot of money on me. I'm ashamed.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Travel, Courage

“The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Personality

“Time can't be measured in days the way money is measured in pesos and centavos, because all pesos are equal, while every day, perhaps every hour, is different.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

"Juan Muraña", in Brodie's Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)

Way, Time

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

As quoted in News Journal [Mansfield, Ohio] (3 August 1965)
Attributed from posthumous publications

Business, Business, For Team

“I have a renewed commitment to elegance, she said, in case you think I'm just spending money for the fun of it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Thinking

“Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal appearance, and a man's money, but they cannot resist a man's tongue when he knows how to talk to them.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Love, Women, Appearance, Personality

“Money problems can always be solved by a man not frightened by them.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Problem

“That machine took my money!' I said. 'I must have revenge!”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Revenge

“Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

“Love, it turns out, is as undemocratic as money, so it accumulates around people who have plenty of it already: the sane, the healthy, the lovable.”

Nick Hornby book How to Be Good

Source: How to Be Good

Love, People

“I don't get why prom is like a mini-wedding these days… No one should spend that kind of money for a high school dance.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Fortunes of Indigo Skye

School, Wedding, Dance

“I don't really need a job or extra money. After Rose and I get married, the kids and I'll just live off of her guardian paycheck.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

“I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.”

David Hockney (1937) British artist

Life, Thinking

“Good friends are hard to come by.. I need more money.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

“… some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Michael Caine movie The Dark Knight

Movie The Dark Knight, character Alfred Pennyworth

Men, World

“Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Seditions and Troubles
Essays (1625)
Source: The Essays

“she took pictures of germs, viruses, and people reacting to germs and viruses. On weekends, for extra money, she photographed weddings, which really wasn't that much of a stretch”

David Sedaris book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Source: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

People, Wedding

“Value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”

Barbara Kingsolver book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Source: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

“But money or no money we're all searching for the same things aren't we It doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have. Love and happiness that's what it's all about”

Jill Mansell (1957) British author

Source: Millie's Fling

Love, Happiness, Search

“But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Source: A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition

“While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Happiness

“Anything which is physically possible can always be made financially possible; money is a bugaboo of small minds.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Context: A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Death

“Money to me had always been merely something the sheep used to show each other how wonderful they were.”

Jeff Lindsay book Dexter Is Delicious

Source: Dexter Is Delicious

“You don’t like people who have money, do you? (Astrid)
I’m not prejudiced against anyone, princess. I hate everyone equally. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Hate, People, Princess

“I hate handing over money to people for doing what I could just as easily do myself, it makes me nervous.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Hate, People

“A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“If she wanted my money, I'd give her every cent. If she wanted another man, I'd make her forget him”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Captivated by You

Forgetting

“Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Change

“They say money talks, but all mine ever says is 'good-bye sucker.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Head Over Heels

“It never seemed fair that just when you're old enough to do anything you want, you can't. You have to start working, so there's no time. And if there is time, you're not working, so there's no money.”

Terri Farley (1950) American writer

Source: Seven Tears Into the Sea

Time

“The only way to not think about money is to have a great deal of it."

You might as well say that the only way not to think about air is to have enough to breathe.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Way, Thinking

“They have money and position and Ann has none. It's amazing how often you can be right as long as you have those two things working in your favor.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

“Finding your passion isn't just about careers and money. It's about finding your authentic self. The one you've buried beneath other people's needs.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Distant Shores

People, Passion

“I wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Pleasure

“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.”

Woody Allen Without Feathers

"The Early Essays".
Source: Without Feathers (1975)

“Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 19 (p. 109)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

People, Way, Time

“Disagreements over money are the biggest cause of divorce."

She waved her hand. "Absolutely no problem. Your money is our money. My money is my money." She wrote away.

"I should make you negotiate with Phoebe.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Match Me If You Can

Problem

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

As quoted in The Story of Our Money (1946) by Olive Cushing Dwinell, p. 71; this is in an author's note following a quote by Alexander Hamilton. After the author's note there is the sentence "From Writings of Madison, previously quoted. Vol. 2, p. 14". This is apparently an editor's error since the note is clearly Dwinell's. See the talk page for more details.
Misattributed

History

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.”

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor

Happiness, Chance

“When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

“Unfortunately most ways of making big money take a long time. By the time one has made the money one is too old to enjoy it.”

Ian Fleming book Goldfinger

Source: Goldfinger

Way, Time

“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Men, World, Mountain, Learning

“After all, people judge one another according to their own feelings. It is only the miser who sees other enticed by money, the lustful who see others obsessed by desire.”

Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942) French novelist who died at the age of 39 in Auschwitz

Source: Suite Française

People, Feeling

“Jesus, Morelli, you sound like you have PMS. You have to learn to lighten up a little. It's just a car alarm. You should be thanking me. I had it installed with my own money.”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

Cars, Learning

“Do what you love.
Do what makes your heart sing.
And NEVER do it for the money,
Go to work to spread joy.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Love, Singing, Heart, Joy

“That money talks, I'll not deny, I heard it once: it said, 'goodbye”

Richard Armour (1906–1989) American writer

Goodbye

“Morality is a matter of money. Poor people cannot afford to have morals. So they have religion.”

Khushwant Singh Train to Pakistan

Variant: Maorality is a matter of money. Poor people cannot afford to have morals. So they have religion
Source: Train to Pakistan

People, Religion

“Money can't buy happiness but it can buy a huge yacht that sails right next to it.”

David Lee Roth (1954) Rock vocalist; lead singer with Van Halen

Happiness

“all the time something within her was crying for a decision.
She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Love, Life, Decision, Time

“Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.”

Daniel Kahneman (1934) Israeli-American psychologist

Source: Well-Being: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology

Happiness

“Money. It's a good servant but a bad master.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“There will never be a good time, financially, to get married, unless you're Shaq or Ray Romano. But somehow people manage. If your man is using money as an excuse not to marry you, it's your relationship that's insecure, not his bank account.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

People, Time

“Money doesn't talk, it swears.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Lyrics: 1962-2001

“The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don't put money on it. Take my advice and stick to the present. It's the real stuff, the only stuff, it's all there is, the present, the panting present.”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Way, Future

“You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Love, Sense

“When money's tight and is hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.”

Flann O'Brien (1911–1966) Irish writer

Horse

“There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)

People, Time

“I say money has no value; it's just the way you spend it.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Source: The Sound and the Fury

Way

“You should've just gotten a kids' meal.' Adrian told me, pointing to my half-eaten burger and fries. 'You could've saved me a lot of money. And gotten a toy.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

“I know what a park bench is and the landlord's knock. There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

“Money follows art. Money wants what it can't buy. Class and talent. And remember while there's a talent for making money, it takes real talent to know how to spend it.”

Candace Bushnell book One Fifth Avenue

Source: One Fifth Avenue

Art

“No, I don't want your money. The world moves less by money than by what you owe people and what they owe you. I don't like to owe anybody anything, so I keep to myself as much on the lending side as I can.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

People, World

“I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.”

James M. Cain book Double Indemnity

Source: Double Indemnity

“Humans were so stupid. They had something so precious, and they barely safeguarded it at all. They threw away their lives for money, for packets of powder, for a stranger's charming smile.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Stupidity, Smile

“A fool and his money are soon elected.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Fools

“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

“I guess money can't buy happiness if you shop in the wrong places.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Tribute

Happiness

“Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Love

“Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

'Notes On Journalism' http://books.google.com/books?id=52L2eI9mwlcC&q=&quot;No+one+in+this+world+so+far+as+I+know+and+I+have+searched+the+record+for+years+and+employed+agents+to+help+me+has+ever+lost+money+by+underestimating+the+intelligence+of+the+great+masses+of+the+plain+people&quot;&pg=PA28#v=onepage in the Chicago Tribune ( 19 September 1926 http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1926/09/19/page/87/article/notes-on-journalism) <br class="br">The first sentence is often paraphrased as "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." (The Yale Book of Quotations, 2006, p. 512) <br class="br">1920s <br class="br">Source: Gist of Mencken

People, World, Intelligence, Help

“She reached into her coat pocket and felt two things she hadn't expected…. One was a wad of cash… she brought out the money. Leo whistled. "Allowance? Piper, your mom rocks!”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Moms

“Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

People, Sex

“Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to money, and so design had given way to expediency.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

World, Way

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian

This is a variant expression of a sentiment which is often attributed to Tocqueville or Alexander Fraser Tytler, but the earliest known occurrence is as an unsourced attribution to Tytler in "This is the Hard Core of Freedom" by Elmer T. Peterson in The Daily Oklahoman (9 December 1951): "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."
Misattributed
Variant: The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.

“If we can't respect the way we earn it, money has no value. If we can't use it to make life better for our families and loved ones, money has no purpose.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Life, Family, Way

“Politics is not about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives”

Paul Wellstone (1944–2002) American politician

People, Game

“Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

Anna Lappé (1973) American writer

World, Time

“I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here… rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Love, Truth, Faith

“Do you always throw your money away like this?"

"Only when I'm in love”

Sidney Sheldon book Nothing Lasts Forever

Source: Nothing Lasts Forever

Love

“Beauty is that quality which, next to money, is generally the most attractive to the worst kinds of men;”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XVI : The Warning of Experience; Mrs. Maxwell to Helen
Context: Beauty is that quality which, next to money, is generally the most attractive to the worst kinds of men; and, therefore, it is likely to entail a great deal of trouble on the possessor.

Men, Beauty