“If the love of money is the root of all evil, the need of money is most certainly the root of all despair.”

—  Isaac Asimov , book Half-Breed

Source: Short fiction, The Early Asimov Book One (1972), Half-Breed (p. 160)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 22, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If the love of money is the root of all evil, the need of money is most certainly the root of all despair." by Isaac Asimov?
Isaac Asimov photo
Isaac Asimov 303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni… 1920–1992

Related quotes

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“The love of money is the root of all evil."

The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Children About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Don't

Ayn Rand photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
Mark Twain photo

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

This appears in Twain's posthumous The Refuge of the Derelicts (1905), but it had already been published by other writers.
The earliest citation found in Google Books is a 1872 article by Richard Bowker: "Our Crime Against Crimes" https://books.google.com/books?id=YZgBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA68&dq=The+lack+of+money+is+the+root+of+all+evil&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWi5DE1crLAhUI3mMKHeSdB0YQ6AEIKzAB#v=onepage&q=%22lack%20of%20money%22&f=false, in The Herald of Health, vol. 19 no. 2, New York: Wood & Holbrook, February 1872. The saying is placed within quotation marks, perhaps indicating that it was already well-known.
A precursor is found in an article from 1859 https://books.google.com/books?id=gpdEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA209&dq=The+lack+of+money+is+the+root+of+all+evil&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWi5DE1crLAhUI3mMKHeSdB0YQ6AEINTAD#v=onepage&q=%22lack%20of%20gold%22&f=false: It is very well to repeat, parrot-like, the old axiom that “the love of gold is the root of all evil;” but it is very certain that in truth—the lack of gold is the great incentive to crime.
Disputed

Samuel Butler photo

“It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Source: Erewhon (1872), Ch. 20

Henry Fielding photo

“Money is the fruit of evil as often as the root of it.”

Henry Fielding (1707–1754) English novelist and dramatist

Don Quixote in England (1731), Act I, scene vi http://books.google.com/books?id=8_VbAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Money+is+the+fruit+of+evil+as+often+as+the+root+of+it%22&pg=PA13#v=onepage

Ron English photo

“Money is the root of all motivation.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Paul of Tarsus photo

“For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.”

1 Timothy 6:10 (as quoted in Catholic Bible Douay-Rehims http://www.biblebible.com/text-bible/Catholic-Bible/1_timothy_6.asp)
First Epistle to Timothy

Kent Hovind photo

Related topics