“The difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous…and the difference between a little money and an enormous amount of money is very slight.”

The Matchmaker (1954)

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 difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous…and the difference between a little money and an …" by Thornton Wilder?
Thornton Wilder photo
Thornton Wilder 61
American playwright and novelist 1897–1975

Related quotes

David Foster Wallace photo

“What's the difference between a whore and a congressman? A congressman makes more money.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Vitali Klitschko photo

“Russian soldiers are fighting for the money, Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian citizens are fighting for the future of our children - and you feel the difference between the money and the children.”

Vitali Klitschko (1971) Ukrainian boxer and politician

"Ukraine war: Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says it is 'a big privilege for every man' to defend Ukraine and warns Russian soldiers to 'go away'" https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-kyiv-mayor-vitali-klitschko-says-it-is-a-big-privilege-for-every-man-to-defend-ukraine-and-warns-russian-soldiers-to-go-away-12578968, Sky News, 31 March 2022

Henry Miller photo
Andrew Sega photo

“There's a big difference between playing shows for fun, and playing shows because you're in desperate need of the money.”

Andrew Sega (1975) musician from America

Electrogarden interview with Iris http://www.electrogarden.com/features/iris/

George Soros photo

“The main difference between me and other people who have amassed this kind of money is that I am primarily interested in ideas, and I don't have much personal use for money.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

As quoted in The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros (2006) by Mark Tier, p. 219
Context: The main difference between me and other people who have amassed this kind of money is that I am primarily interested in ideas, and I don't have much personal use for money. But I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't made money: My ideas would not have gotten much play.

Caitlín R. Kiernan photo

“Yes, I'm sure it makes people more money, and money is nice, but it has very little to do with telling good and true and useful stories.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

(22 January 2005)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005
Context: [On test audiences and alternate endings on DVDs] Seeing these two endings, knowing that the studio most likely chose the one that would close the film after polling test audiences, makes me a little ill. What if I did that with my novels? What would you think of me, if I were to so subvert the act of storytelling and mythmaking in an effort to make more money (by, I might add, perverting democracy)? Okay, at the end of Low Red Moon, I can kill Chance, or I can let her live. Which ending do you prefer? Check the box, and let us know. Should Orpheus make it back to the surface without looking to see if Eurydice is truly following him, or should he look? Should the mouse pull the thorn from the lion's paw, or should he mind his own damned business? I can only hope that it is self-evident that this process is as alien and destructive to art as anything ever could be. Yes, I'm sure it makes people more money, and money is nice, but it has very little to do with telling good and true and useful stories.

“There's not much money - if that's what you mean."
"Approximately."
"Once all the debts are paid there will be very little.”

Bernard MacLaverty (1942) Irish writer

"Nevertheless. Every little helps. The Brothers are sorely in need of it this weather."
Source: Novels, Lamb (1980), Ch.1 - p.12

Alan Moore photo

“Money is code for the whole of life – you can bind in everything that is contained within life for money, money is a certain amount of sex, a certain amount of shelter, a certain amount of sustenance.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

De Abaitua interview (1998)
Context: The origin of money is something to do with representational thinking. Representational thinking is the real leap, where somebody says ‘hey I can draw this shape on the cave wall and it is, in some way, the bison we saw at the meadow. These lines are the bison. That of course lead to language – this squiggle is, of course, a tree, or something. Is the tree. Money is code for the whole of life – you can bind in everything that is contained within life for money, money is a certain amount of sex, a certain amount of shelter, a certain amount of sustenance. … Money is the code for the entire world. Money is the world, the world in the sense I was talking about earlier, our abstract ideas about the world. Money is a perfect symbol for all that, and if you don’t believe in it, and you set a match to it, it’s just firewood – it doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Related topics