“Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea; scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise.”

— Samuel Smiles

Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. X : Money — Its Use and Abuse

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 "Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man…" by Samuel Smiles?

Samuel Smiles 13

Scottish author 1812–1904

Related quotes

“I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Random Reminiscences of Men and Events (1906)

“A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.”

Lana Turner (1921–1995) American actress

“This country can ill afford to continue to function using less than half of its human resources, less than half its kinetic energy, less than half its brain power.”

Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) American politician

Keynote address, Democratic National Convention (13 July 1992). (see External links)

“There is nothing man desires more than a heroic life: there is nothing less common to men than heroism.”

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) French philosopher

True Humanism (1938), p. xi.

“The more money an American accumulates the less interesting he himself becomes.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

"H. Hughes," The New York Review of Books (20 April 1972)
1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972)

“Any fool can spend money. But to earn it and save it and defer gratification—then you learn to value it differently.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“When we look at the pay of men and women who do work equal hours, two discoveries are quite astonishing:
--When women and men work less than 40 hours a week, the women earn more than the men;
--When men and women work more than 40, the men earn more than the women.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: Why Men Earn More (2005), p. 79.

“To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & and a bag worn with the use of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers..”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

1790s, Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

“The sense that a man is serving a Higher than himself, with a service which will become ever more and more perfect freedom, evokes more profound, more humbling, more exalted emotions than any thing else in the world can do. The spirit of man is an instrument which cannot give out its deepest, finest tones, except under the immediate hand of the Divine Harmonist.”

John Campbell Shairp (1819–1885) British writer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 127.

“Nothing is more portable than rich people and their money”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Attributed without source
Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Samuel Smiles 13

Related quotes

Related topics