Quotes about penny (118 quotes, page 2)

“I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. … It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

As quoted in Barbarians at the Gate : The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989), by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

Business , Loyalty

“A penny for your thought.”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

Part II, chapter 4.
Proverbs (1546)
Variant: A penny for your thought.

“A penny for the Old Guy”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

A quotation of a traditional Guy Fawkes Night saying
The Hollow Men (1925)

Guy

“Only the very meanest people refuse to give pennies and these are always visited by Extreme Bad Luck.”

P. L. Travers book Mary Poppins Opens the Door

NOTE (on Guy Fawkes' Day)
Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)
Context: The Fifth of November is Guy Fawkes' Day in England. In peacetime it is celebrated with bonfires on the greens, fireworks in the parks and the carrying of "guys" through the streets. "Guys" are stuffed, straw figures of unpopular persons; and after they have been shown to everybody they are burnt in the bonfires amid great acclamation. The children black their faces and put on comical clothes, and go about begging for a Penny for the Guy. Only the very meanest people refuse to give pennies and these are always visited by Extreme Bad Luck.
The Original Guy Fawkes was one of the men who took part in the Gunpowder Plot. This was a conspiracy for blowing up King James I and the Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605. The plot was discovered, however, before any damage was done. The only result was that King James and his Parliament went on living but Guy Fawkes, poor man, did not. He was executed with the other conspirators. Nevertheless, it is Guy Fawkes who is remembered today and King James who is forgotten. For since that time, the Fifth of November in England, like the Fourth of July in America, has been devoted to Fireworks. From 1605 till 1939 every village green in the shires had a bonfire on Guy Fawkes' Day.

Bad luck , People

“As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

B 33
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)
Context: As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones. There is so much goodness and ingenuity in a raindrop that an apothecary wouldn't let it go for less than half-a-crown.

Universe

“Now, the truth is, that, whilst we have been often brought low; yea, so low, that we have not had even as much as one single penny left; or so as to have the last bread on the table, and not as much money as was needed to buy another loaf;--yet never have we had to sit down to a meal, without our good Lord having provided nourishing food for us. I am bound to state this, and I do it with pleasure. My Master has been a kind Master to me, and if I had to choose this day again, as to the way of living, the Lord giving me grace, I would not choose differently.”

George Müller (1805–1898) German-English clergyman

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, First Part.
First Part of Narrative

Money , Pleasure , Truth , Food

“Without your love
It's a honky-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.”

Yip Harburg (1896–1981) American song lyricist

"It's Only a Paper Moon" (1933) (co-written with Billy Rose).
Context: Without your love
It's a honky-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade. It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.

Love

“Millions of dollars have been expended to excavate and transport to museums the tools, weapons, and other artifacts of Indians—but scarcely a penny has been spent to save the living descendents of those who made them.”

Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer

Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)
Context: Millions of dollars have been expended to excavate and transport to museums the tools, weapons, and other artifacts of Indians—but scarcely a penny has been spent to save the living descendents of those who made them. Modern man is prompt to prevent cruelty to animals, and sometimes even to humans, but no counterpart of the Humane Society or the Sierra Club exists to prevent cruelty to entire cultures.<!-- p. 275

“It is the nature of all living creatures, including Homo sapiens, I believe, to adapt to a place where they may survive. If that is something we as social beings called home then home it is for my main character in The Guardians, Regina who has plunked down hard earned pennies on a cachito of terreno where she can survive, plants some vegetables to live from, etc.”

Ana Castillo (1953) novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer

On the concept of home for Latinas in “The Power of a Query: An Interview with Ana Castillo” http://www.acentosreview.com/September_2008/Webhe-Herrera.html in Acentos Review (September 2008)

Home , Nature

“Leadership starts with our choices. That’s why I decided that no one on my staff will make less than $52k/year. It’s likely one of the highest entry-level salaries on the Hill. We pinch pennies elsewhere, but it’s worth every dime to pay a living wage.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter post, https://twitter.com/AOC (22 February 2019)
Twitter Quotes (2019), February 2019

Making love

“It was just a bowl of peasant's clay, red brown in color, thickly made and rough to the touch, not perfectly round, with a small indentation on one side where the potter had damaged the unfired clay. It was worth pennies, perhaps nothing. Yet it was the greatest treasure of Christendom. And he kissed it once, and then he drew back his strong archer's right arm, ran down to the sucking sea's edge, and threw it as far and as hard as he could. He hurled it away and it span for an instant above the gray waves, seemed to fly a heartbeat longer as if it were reluctant to let go of mankind, and then the bowl was gone.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

Strong , Kiss , Color , Flying

“We shouldn’t be closing schools because the heat doesn’t work … If we are getting money from the state we should be using it. We need every penny we can get.”

Catherine Pugh (1950) American politician

As quoted in "Baltimore schools have returned millions in state funds for heating repairs" by Luke Broadwater in The Baltimore Sun (4 January 2018) https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-schools-money-returned-20180104-story.html

School , Money

“A young man is to crime what a penny is to the X.”

Honoré de Balzac book The Atheist's Mass

The Atheist's Mass (1836)
Original: (fr) Un jeune homme est au crime ce qu'une pièce de cent sous est au X.

“For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value in any of them is that they bear the image of the King.... It has often been said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.”

G. K. Chesterton Charles Dickens

Ch 1 : "The Dickens Period"
Charles Dickens (1906)

Truth , Religion , Feeling , Men

“What a pity that he who steals a penny loaf should be hung, whilst he who steals thousands of the public money should be acquitted!”

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on two occasions

Source: 1806 journal entry on the acquittal of Lord Melville for misappropriation of public funds, as quoted in Stuart J. Reid, Lord John Russell (1895), p.9

Money