“The poor man's price of admittance to the favor of the rich is his self-respect.”

Source: Epigrams, p. 368

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 poor man's price of admittance to the favor of the rich is his self-respect." by Ambrose Bierce?
Ambrose Bierce photo
Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914

Related quotes

Marie de France photo

“It is likewise with the proud, rich man: he will never have mercy on the poor man because of his hue or his cry, but if the poor man could wreak vengeance on him, then you would see the rich man bow.”

Marie de France medieval poet

Si est del riche orguillus:
Ja del povre n'avra merci
Pur sa pleinte ne pur sun cri;
Mes se cil s'en peüst vengier,
Dunc le verreit l'um suzpleier.
Fables, no. 10, "The Fox and the Eagle", line 18; cited from Mary Lou Martin (trans.) The Fables of Marie de France (Birmingham, Alabama: Summa, 1984) pp. 54-6. Translation from the same source, p. 55.

Samuel Johnson photo

“Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments”

No. 163 (8 October 1751)
The Rambler (1750–1752)
Context: Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.

Robert P. George photo

“It's the rich and powerful, by and large, who glamorize immorality, but it's the poor and vulnerable who pay the price.”

Robert P. George (1955) American legal scholar

2016, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

Woodrow Wilson photo

“There is a price which is too great to pay for peace, and that price can be put in one word. One cannot pay the price of self-respect.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Des Moines Iowa speech (1 February 1916) http://www.combat.ws/S3/BAKISSUE/CMBT01N2/SMOKE.HTM, on "The Westerm Preparedness Tour" http://www.allthingswilliam.com/presidents/wilson.html
1910s

Menander photo

“In this part he most shows himself a man,
whoever tolerates making himself equal to another,
rich to poor. For this man will bear a change of fortune
with self-control.”

Gorgias.
Dyskolos
Context: Even if you were a softy, you took the mattock, you dug,
you were willing to work. In this part he most shows himself a man,
whoever tolerates making himself equal to another,
rich to poor. For this man will bear a change of fortune
with self-control. You have given a sufficient proof of your character. 
I wish only that you remain as you are.

Joan Didion photo

“Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.”

Joan Didion (1934) American writer

"On Self-Respect", in Slouching Towards Bethlehem

W.C. Fields quote: “A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money”
W.C. Fields photo
Jean de La Bruyère photo

“A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.”

Le sage guérit de l'ambition par l'ambition même; il tend à de si grandes choses, qu'il ne peut se borner à ce qu'on appelle des trésors, des postes, la fortune et la faveur.
Aphorism 43
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel

Ilana Mercer photo

“Wars are generally a rich man's affair and a poor man's fight.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

" Sanctuary City Mayor Trashes An AMERICAN Hero, Robert E. Lee, https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/sanctuary-city-mayor-trashes-an-american-hero-robert-e-lee/" The Abbeville Institute, May 25, 2017
2010s, 2017

George Orwell photo

“In any form of art designed to appeal to large numbers of people,…[t]he rich man is usually 'bad', and his machinations are invariably frustrated. 'Good poor man defeats bad rich man' is an accepted formula.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"As I Please," Tribune (28 July 1944)<sup> http://alexpeak.com/twr/orwell/quotes/</sup>
As I Please (1943–1947)

Related topics