
“Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (27 May 1788) ME 7:36
1780s
"The Early Essays".
Source: Without Feathers (1975)
“Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (27 May 1788) ME 7:36
1780s
“You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.”
Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 27
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
" Black Power http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/scarmichael.html" Speech at University of California, Berkeley, October 29, 1966
State of the Art (2000)
“Money is always transitively valued. More money is supposedly always better than less money.”
Source: Mind and Nature, a necessary unity, 1988, p. 56
Source: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), unplaced by chapter
Context: Ellen, only last night, asked, 'Daddy, when will we be rich?' But I did not say to her what I know: 'We will be rich soon, and you who handle poverty badly will handle riches equally badly.' And that is true. In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.
By J. Paul Getty http://www.kelsoinstitute.org/equality.html
Misattributed
“It is better to be addicted to opium than to be addicted to money.”
On her "soul brother" Jim Morrison, as quoted in Life and Lies of an Icon (1995) by Richard Witts.
Context: I think he was the first man I met who was not afraid of me in some way. We were very similar, like brother and sister. Our spirits are similar. We were the same height and the same age, almost … He was well read and he introduced me to William Blake and also the English Romantic poets who came after him. Jim liked Shelley. I preferred Coleridge. In fact, he is my favoured poet of all time. Did you know they were all drug addicts? Coleridge was addicted to opium. It is better to be addicted to opium than to be addicted to money.