Money

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Most of the people … were unhappy … much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. ~ Douglas Adams

Money is commonly defined by the functions attached to any good or token that functions in trade as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account, although economics offers various definitions.

Contents

[edit] Quotes

The usual definition of the functions of money are that money is a medium of exchange, a measure of value, a standard of deferred payment and a store of value. ~ Sir Norman Angell
Alphabetized by author or source
If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it. ~ Epictetus
The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money. ~ Benjamin Franklin
It's no trick to make a lot of money, if all you want to do is make a lot of money. ~ "Everett Sloane" in Citizen Kane
Money plays the largest part in determining the course of history. ~ Karl Marx
The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. ~ Paul of Tarsus
What power has law where only money rules? ~ Petronius
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
  • This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
  • All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.
  • Money, now this has to be some good shit.
  • The usual definition of the functions of money are that money is a medium of exchange, a measure of value, a standard of deferred payment and a store of value.
  • Divitiæ bona ancilla, pessima domina.
  • Translations:
    Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
    Wealth is a good servant, a very bad mistress
    L'argent est un bon serviteur, et un méchant maître
    Money is a good servant, a dangerous master.
    • Francis Bacon, De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum (1623), Book Six
    • The last two have sometimes been attributed to Dominique Bouhours, but are probably just translations of Bacon's words.
  • Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
  • I look at Paris Hilton, think about her parents' fortune and her grandparents' fortune. She thought she had it all together. A whole lot of people think that, that when you got money you can do anything you want to do. But I want to tell you there are some things money can't do for you; Money can buy you a house, but can't buy you a home; Money can buy you food to put on your table, but can't buy an appetite; Money can buy you one of the most finest matresses in the world, but can't buy you sleep.
  • If money is, as it is often posited, the root of all evil, then where does that leave greed? Let's do the math: Greed takes up most of your time and most of your money, so therefore greed = time x money. And, as we all know, time = money. Ergo, greed = money x money. So, if money is the square root of all evil, then we are forced to conclude that greed is evil as well, perhaps even more so, in that it forced us to do math.
    But when does the desire to simply possess something turn into unchecked greed? That's easy: when the things that you possess start possessing you.
    • Dale E. Basye and Bob Dob, in Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck (2009), "Backword", p. 361.
  • The accuser of sins by my side doth stand,
    And he holds my money bag in his hand;
    For my worldly things God makes him pay;
    And he'd pay for more, if to him I would pray.
    • William Blake, as quoted in Life of William Blake : Pictor Ignotus (1863) by Alexander Gilchrist
  • We could never imagine what a strange disproportion a few or a great many pieces of money make between men, if we did not see it every day with our own eyes.
  • And who can suffer injury by just taxation, impartial laws and the application of the Jeffersonian doctrine of equal rights to all and special privileges to none? Only those whose accumulations are stained with dishonesty and whose immoral methods have given them a distorted view of business, society and government. Accumulating by conscious frauds more money than they can use upon themselves, wisely distribute or safely leave to their children, these denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw a light upon their crimes.
    • William Jennings Bryan, speech at Madison Square Garden, New York, 30 August 1906, at a reception welcoming Bryan on his return from a year's trip around the world. Speeches of William Jennings Bryan, Funk & Wagnalls, 1909, p. 90
    • Often misquoted as: The money power denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.Ignotus, 1863.
  • Money well managed deserves, indeed, the apotheosis to which she was raised by her Latin adorers; she is Diva Moneta — a goddess.
  • Money is the source of the greatest vice, and that nation which is most rich, is most wicked.
    • Frances Burney, in The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, entry for 17 November 1768.
  • Penny wise, pound foolish.
    • Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus to the Reader, p. 35. (Ed. 1887).
  • Still amorous, and fond, and billing,
    Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
  • Money…is the symbol of duty, it is the sacrament of having done for mankind that which mankind wanted. Mankind may not be a very good judge, but there is no better.
  • How beauteous are rouleaus! how charming chests
    Containing ingots, bags of dollars, coins
    (Not of old victors, all whose heads and crests
    Weigh not the thin ore where their visage shines,
    But) of fine unclipt gold, where dully rests
    Some likeness, which the glittering cirque confines,
    Of modern, reigning, sterling, stupid stamp;—
    Yes! ready money is Aladdin's lamp.
  • A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end.
  • It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.
  • Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.
    • Fidel Castro, Quoted in The Observer (British) newspaper (8 November 1964).
  • Therefor my theme is yet, and ever was—
    Radix malorum est cupiditas.
    Thus can I preche agayn that same vyce
    Which that I use, and that is avaryce.
  • To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
    • G. K. Chesterton, 'The Paradise of Thieves', The Wisdom of father Brown, 1914.
  • Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.
  • I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money. Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.
  • So pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
    So pleasant it is to have money.
  • To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.
    • Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words : Addressed to Those who Think (1836), p. 149.
  • No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
  • I have never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs. ... I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. .. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected.
    • John Danforth, Republican senator from Missouri, reported in the Arizona Republic (21 April 1992).
  • If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people.
  • The grabbing hands
    Grab all they can
    All for themselves, after all
    It's a competitive world
    Everything counts in large amounts
  • As a general rule, nobody has money who ought to have it.
  • Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."
    • David Alfred Doudney "Old Jonathan's" jottings; or, Light and lessons from daily life (1869), p. 18; published earlier in the magazine Old Jonathan, or the Parish Helper
    • Often misattributed to Benjamin Franklin
  • Money, which represents the prose of life, and is hardly spoken of in parlors without apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.
  • Money often costs too much.
  • If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.
    • Epictetus, "The Encheiridion, or Manual, XXIV" (c. 135 A.D.), as translated by George Long, The Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion and Fragments (1890), p. 388
  • Penny saved is a penny got.
  • Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the rest;
    Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!
  • Money. Cause of all evil, Auri sacra fames. The god of the day—but not to be confused with Apollo. Politicians call it emoluments; lawyers, retainers; doctors, fees; employees, salary; workmen, pay; servants, wages. "Money is not happiness."
  • If you'd lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.
  • If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
  • The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money.
  • 'Tis money that begets money.
  • In numerous years following the war, the Federal Government ran a heavy surplus. It could not (however) pay off its debt, retire its securities, because to do so meant there would be no bonds to back the national bank notes. To pay off the debt was to destroy the money supply.
  • It would convert the Treasury of the United States into a manufactory of paper money. It makes the House of Representatives and the Senate, or the caucus of the party which happens to be in the majority, the absolute dictator of the financial and business affairs of this country. This scheme surpasses all the centralism and all the Caesarism that were ever charged upon the Republican party in the wildest days of the war or in the events growing out of the war.
  • "I would not steal a penny, for my income's very fair—
    I do not want a penny—I have pennies and to spare—
    And if I stole a penny from a money-bag or till,
    The sin would be enormous—the temptation being nil.
  • The earning of money should be a means to an end; for more than thirty years — I began to support myself at sixteen — I had to regard it as the end itself.
  • Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders... The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and... manipulates the credit of the United States.
    • Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), With No Apologies: The Personal and Political Memoirs of United States Senator Barry M. Goldwater (1979).
  • With money, so they all profess —
    And I've no wish to beg the question —
    One cannot purchase Happiness
    Or Peace of Mind, or yet Success,
    Or a robust digestion;
    But one can buy a good cigar
    And plovers' eggs and caviare!
    • Harry Graham, 'The Millionaire', The World's Workers (1928).
  • If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.
    • Robert Graves (1895–1985), English novelist and poet. 'Mammon', Mammon and the Black Goddess (1965).
  • To be controlled in our economic pursuits means to be always controlled unless we declare our specific purpose. Or, since when we declare our specific purpose we shall also have to get it approved, we should really be controlled in everything.
    • Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944), Chapter 7, "Economic Control and Totalitarianism".
  • If you are different, you had better hide it, and pretend to be solemn and wooden-headed. Until you make your fortune. For most wooden-headed people worship money; and, really, I do not see what else they can do.
    • Oliver Heaviside, in Electromagnetic Theory (1912), Volume III; "The Electrician", p. 1.
  • Would you know what money is, go borrow some.
  • Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.
  • Si possis recte, si non, quocumque mondo rem.
    By right means, if you can, but by any means make money.
  • They may talk of the plugging and sweating
    Of our coinage that's minted of gold,
    But to me it produces no fretting
    Of its shortness of weight to be told:
    All the sov'reigns I'm able to levy
    As to lightness can never be wrong,
    But must surely be some of the heavy,
    For I never can carry them long.
    • Thomas Hood (1799–1845), 'Epigram on the Depreciated Money', Hood's Own, Second Series (1861).
  • Ploratur lacrimis amissa pecunia veris.
  • Lost money is wept for with real tears.
  • Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit,
    Et minus hanc optat, qu non habet.
  • Increase of wealth increases our desires
    And hew, who least possesses, least requires.
  • Alt. Translation: The love of money grows as the money itself grows.
  • It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power "to coin money and regulate the value thereof." Congress have established a mint to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional.
    • Andrew Jackson, veto mesage rgarding the Bank of the United States [2] (1832-07-10)
    • Often paraphrased as: If Congress has the right under the constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.
  • I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.
  • And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
  • No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
  • No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
    • Samuel Johnson, Stated on 14 April 1776, quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
  • Throw money at a problem and it will remain.
    • Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited.
  • To borrow money, big money, you have to wear your hair in a certain way, walk in a certain way, and have about you an air of solemnity and majesty — something like the atmosphere of a Gothic cathedral.
  • That's right. While economic textbooks claim that people and corporations are competing for markets and resources, I claim that in reality they are competing for money - using markets and resources to do so. So designing new money systems really amounts to redesigning the target that orients much human effort.
    Furthermore, I believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using. For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
    Money is created when banks lend it into existence. When a bank provides you with a $100,000 mortgage, it creates only the principal, which you spend and which then circulates in the economy. The bank expects you to pay back $200,000 over the next 20 years, but it doesn't create the second $100,000 - the interest. Instead, the bank sends you out into the tough world to battle against everybody else to bring back the second $100,000.
  • Your money's value is determined by a global casino of unprecedented proportions: $2 trillion are traded per day in foreign exchange markets, 100 times more than the trading volume of all the stockmarkets of the world combined. Only 2% of these foreign exchange transactions relate to the "real" economy reflecting movements of real goods and services in the world, and 98% are purely speculative. This global casino is triggering the foreign exchange crises which shook Mexico in 1994-5, Asia in 1997 and Russia in 1998. These emergencies are the dislocation symptoms of the old Industrial Age money system.
  • Money is an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange.
  • As a rule, there is nothing that offends us more than a new kind of money.
    • Robert Lynd, in The Pleasures of Ignorance (1921), p. 215.
  • But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the friendship in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used. Give it plenty of air, and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up, and it cankers and breeds worms.
  • Money plays the largest part in determining the course of history
  • I who can have, through the power of money, everything for which the human heart longs, do I not possess all human abilities? Does not my money, therefore, transform all my incapacities into their opposites.
    • Karl Marx, Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844).
  • Late to bed and late to wake will keep you long on money and short on mistakes.
  • And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid, — what will compare with it?
  • Money couldn't buy friends, but you got a better class of enemy.
  • Public opinion always wants easy money, that is, low interest rates.
  • I like to carry some cash because you feel like you can cope with any situation — such as being mugged. I always try to have about £50 in my pocket just for convenience, really.
    • David Mitchell, in his interview in with Nick McGarth The Daily Mail (16 July 2008).
  • Truly, it is not want, but rather abundance, that breeds avarice.
    • Michel de Montaigne, in "That the taste of good and evil depends, for a good part, on the idea we have of them" in The Essays, Bk. I, Chapter 14, 1st edition (1580).
  • If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.
    • Aristotle Onassis, quoted in Aristotle Onassis: A Biography (1977), by Nicholas Fraser
  • My father told me that when you're working, don't stop to count your money.
    • Pelé, as reported in Pelé: A biography (1976), James Haskins, p. 132.
  • Quid faciant leges, ubi sola pecunia regnat?
  • What power has law where only money rules?
  • Money is a dangerous subject. Polite conversation avoids it. You may talk about economics, but not raw money…
    • Max Plowman, in "Money and The Merchant" in Adelphi magazine (September 1931).
  • I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.
    • Will Rogers, quoted in Will Rogers Performer, p. 292.
  • Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repainting.
    • Billy Rose, as quoted in The New York Post (26 October 1957).
  • The lifeblood of our economy, indeed the whole world's economy, is based on money. Without a currency that can be trusted, the entire structure of economics, the division of labor itself, falls apart. Our wealth, our well being and our very lives are dependent on the continuation of this highly complex structure called the economy and it in turn is dependent on sound money. We have placed our trust for the management of this money on a gang of thieves called the Federal Reserve. They have now clearly demonstrated their inability to restrain themselves from the excesses that can be perpetrated within a paper money system. If we want to survive as a nation, we need to eliminate both the Federal Reserve and paper money.
  • It is when money looks like manna that we truely delight in it.
  • Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.
  • I think it a greater theft to Rob the dead of their Praise, then the Living of their Money.
    • Edward Ravenscroft, Preface to Titus Andronicus, or the Rape of Lavinia (1686); quoted in The Shakespeare Allusion-Book: A Collection of Allusions to Shakespeare from 1591-1700, vol 2, ed. John Munro (1932).
  • 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, as quoted in Money and Class in America (1988) by Lewis H. Lapham, note to Ch. 8.
  • Never allow yourself to get caught without a loose million handy.
    • Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, As quoted as being one of his favourite sayings (on a visit to Cecil Rhodes in South Africa) in the book by Antony Thomas, Rhodes, The Race for Africa (1996).
  • The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President, letter to Col. Edward Mandell House (21 November 1933); as quoted in F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 1928-1945, edited by Elliott Roosevelt (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950), pg. 373.
  • The best way to keep money in perspective is to have some.
  • Ask a great money-maker what he wants to do with his money,—he never knows. He doesn't make it to do anything with it. He gets it only that he may get it.
  • Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of all evil, the sum of blessings.
  • Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money.
  • Money never made any man rich. Contrariwise, there is not any man that hath gathered store of it together that is not become more covetous.
    • Seneca, Ad Lucilium epistulae morales, letter 119.
  • Why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two-and-fifty horses; why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal.
  • Worldly success, measured by the accumulation of money, is no doubt a very dazzling thing; and all men are naturally more or less the admirers of worldly success.
    • Samuel Smiles (1812–1904), Scottish author and reformer. 'Money: Its Use and Abuse', Self-Help (1856), Chapter 10.
  • Keith (Eric Stoltz): You can't tell a book by its cover.
    Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson): No, but you can tell how much it's gonna cost you.
  • In reality money, like numbers and law, is a category of thought. There is a monetary, just as there is a juristic and a mathematical and a technical, thinking of the world-around.
    • Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West; German edition: Der Untergang des Abenlandes, (1918–22).
  • Gold and silver are but merchandise, as well as cloth or linen; and that nation that buys the least, and sells the most, must always have the most money.
    • Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773). Letter, 'Miscellaneous Pieces,' Letters to his Son, 5th ed. (1774), Vol. IV, p. 332.
  • If all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn't be enough to go round.
    • Christina Stead in House of All Nations, Sc. 12 (written in 1938), published by Angus and Robertson (1988).
  • Everyone has to make up their mind if money is money or money isn't money and sooner or later they always do decide that money is money.
  • But as they all say if we sell our home what will we have for it, money, and what is the use of that money, money goes and after it is gone then where are we, beside we have all we want, what can we do with money except lose it, money to spend is not very welcome, if you have it and you try to spend it, well spending money is an anxiety, saving money is a comfort and a pleasure, economy is not a duty it is a comfort, avarice is an excitement, but spending money is nothing, money spent is money non-existent, money saved is money realised...
  • Meanwhile Hollywood has gone nuts. Carol [his wife] turned down a writing job for me at five thousand a week. She said, "Why Jesus Christ then I'd have to find a new bank every week." Just what in hell could a writing man do that would be worth five thousand a week. The whole place is nuts...
    • John Steinbeck, Letter (written in California) to the film editor and director, Lloyd Nestor (17 May 1939). Reproduced in Christies New York Printed Books and manuscripts sale catalogue, 20 May 1988.
  • The flour merchant, the house-builder, and the postman charge us no less on account of our sex; but when we endeavour to earn money to pay all these, then, indeed, we find the interest.
    • Lucy Stone, as quoted in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings, part 3, by Miriam Schnier (1972).
  • What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative; what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her!
  • It's something very personal, a very important thing. Hell! It's a family motto. Are you ready Jerry? I wanna make sure you're ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Jerry, it is such a pleasure to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry.
  • Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal — that there is no human relation between master and slave.
  • A man will be generally very old and feeble before he forgets how much money he has in the funds.
  • It may interest some if I state that during the last twenty years I have made by literature something near £70,000. As I have said before in these pages, I look upon the result as comfortable, but not splendid.
  • Simple rules for saving money.
    To save half: When you are fired by an eager impulse to contribute to a charity, wait, and count to forty.
    To save three-quarters, count sixty.
    To save it all, count sixty-five.
    • Mark Twain, More Tramps Abroad (1897), Chapter 50.
  • Sex is like money; only too much is enough.
  • Pecunia non olet
    • Money does not smell.
    • Vespasian, in his response on being reproached by his son on taking money as a tax on urine, collected from public urinals in Rome, as quoted by Suetonius in The Twelve Caesars: Vespasian.
  • Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
    • Voltaire in "Avarice" in the Philosophical Dictionary (1764).
  • It is more easy to write on money than to obtain it; and those who gain it, jest much at those who only know how to write about it.
  • When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
    • Voltaire, in a letter to Mme. D'Épinal Ferney (26 December 1760).
  • Let us all be happy, and live within our means, even if we have to borrow money to do it with.
    • Artemus Ward [Charles Farrar Brown] in "Science and Natural History" in The London Punch Letters (1865-6).
  • Cash. I just am not happy when I don't have it. The minute I have it I have to spend it. And I just buy STUPID THINGS.
  • Money is the MOMENT to me.
    Money is my MOOD.
  • A dollar is something that you multiply — something that causes an expansion of your house and your mechanical equipment, something that accelerates like speed; and that may be also slowed up or deflated. It is a value that may be totally imaginary, yet can for a time provide half-realized dreams.
  • A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men ...
  • We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
  • I get a few bruises, but I think of the money and I'm alright.
  • If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.
    • Anonymous proverb as quoted in Select Proverbs of All Nations (1824), Thomas Fielding; this has sometimes been mistakenly attributed to Henry Fielding.

[edit] Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 521-24.
  • Up and down the City Road,
    In and out the Eagle,
    That's the way the money goes—
    Pop goes the weasel!
    • Popular street song in England in the late 1850s, sung at the Grecian Theatre. Attributed to W. R. Mandale.
  • L'argent est un bon serviteur, mais un méchant maître.
    • Money is a good servant but a bad master.
    • Quoted by Francis Bacon. (French Proverb.) In Menegiana, II. 296. 1695.
  • Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
  • The sinews of business (or state).
  • Money, which is of very uncertain value, and sometimes has no value at all and even less.
  • Make ducks and drakes with shillings.
    • George Chapman, Eastward Ho, scene 1, Act I. (Written by Chapman, Jonson, Marston.).
  • The way to resumption is to resume.
  • I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow who used to say, "Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves."
  • As I sat at the Café I said to myself,
    They may talk as they please about what they call pelf,
    They may sneer as they like about eating and drinking,
    But help it I cannot, I cannot help thinking
    How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
    How pleasant it is to have money!
  • Money was made, not to command our will,
    But all our lawful pleasures to fulfil.
    Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey;
    The horse doth with the horseman run away.
    • Abraham Cowley, Imitations, Tenth Epistle of Horace, Book I, line 75.
  • Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made,
    To turn a penny in the way of trade.
  • The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.
    • Benjamin Disraeli, in the House of Commons (Feb. 19, 1850). Endymion (1818), Chapter XCVI.
  • "The American nation in the Sixth Ward is a fine People," he says. "They love th' eagle," he says. "On the back iv a dollar."
    • F. P. Donne, Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, Oratory on Politics.
  • Wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
    • Ecclesiastes. X. 19.
  • The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.
    • Lord Eldon. See Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, Volume X, Chapter CCXII.
  • If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
  • Get to live;
    Then live, and use it; else, it is not true
    That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone
    Makes money not a contemptible stone.
  • Fight thou with shafts of silver, and o'ercome
    When no force else can get the masterdome.
  • How widely its agencies vary,—
    To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless,—
    As even its minted coins express,
    Now stamp'd with the image of good Queen Bess,
    And now of a Bloody Mary.
  • Quærenda pecunia primum est; virtus post nummos.
    • Money is to be sought for first of all; virtue after wealth.
    • Horace, Epistles, I. 1. 53.
  • Rem facias rem,
    Recte si possis, si non, quocumque modo rem.
    • Money, make money; by honest means if you can; if not, by any means make money.
    • Horace, Epistles, I. 1. 65.
  • Quo mihi fortunam, si non conceditur uti?
    Of what use is a fortune to me, if I can not use it?
  • Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat.
    • All powerful money gives birth and beauty.
    • Horace, Epistles, 1. 6. 37.
  • Licet superbus ambules pecuniæ,
    Fortuna non mutat genus.
    • Though you strut proud of your money, yet fortune has not changed your birth.
    • Horace, Epodi, IV. 5.
  • Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
    Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.
    • The people hiss me, but I applaud myself at home, when I contemplate the money in my chest.
    • Horace, Satires, I. 1. 66.
  • The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.
    • Washington Irving, Creole Village, in Wolfert's Roost. Appeared in Knickerbocker Magazine (Nov., 1836).
  • Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
    And almost every vice, almighty gold.
    • Ben Jonson, Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.
  • Get money; still get money, boy;
    No matter by what means.
    • Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, Act II, scene 3.
  • Quantum quisque sua nummorum condit in arca,
    Tantum habet et fidei.
    • Every man's credit is proportioned to the money which he has in his chest.
    • Juvenal, Satires, III. 143.
  • Ploratur lacrimis amissa pecunia veris.
    • Money lost is bewailed with unfeigned tears.
    • Juvenal, Satires, XIII. 134.
  • Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.
    • The love of money grows as the money itself grows.
    • Juvenal, Satires, XIV. 139.
  • Dollar Diplomacy.
    • Term applied to Secretary Knox's activities in securing opportunities for the investment of American capital abroad, particularly in Latin America and China; also in Honduras and Liberia. Defended by President William Howard Taft, Message to Congress (Dec. 3, 1912). Huntington Wilson aided Knox in framing the Policy. See Harper's Weekly, April 23, 1910, p. 8.
  • Luat in corpore, qui non habet in ære.
    • Who can not pay with money, must pay with his body.
    • Law Maxim.
  • Nec quicquam acrius quam pecuniæ damnum stimulat.
    • Nothing stings more deeply than the loss of money.
    • Livy, Annales, XXX. 44.
  • Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.
  • Les beaux yeux de ma cassette!
    Il parle d'elle comme un amant d'une maitresse.
    • The beautiful eyes of my money-box!
      He speaks of it as a lover of his mistress.
    • Molière, L'Avare, V, 3.
  • Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
    Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!
  • In pretio pretium nunc est; dat census honores,
    Census amicitias; pauper ubique jacet.
    • Money nowadays is money; money brings office; money gains friends; everywhere the poor man is down.
    • Ovid, Fasti, I. 217.
  • "Get Money, money still!
    And then let virtue follow, if she will."
    This, this the saving doctrine preach'd to all,
    From low St. James' up to high St. Paul.
  • Trade it may help, society extend,
    But lures the Pirate, and corrupts the friend:
    It raises armies in a nation's aid,
    But bribes a senate, and the land's betray'd.
  • Subject to a kind of disease, which at that time they called lack of money.
  • Point d'argent, point de Suisse.
  • Pecuniam in loco negligere maximum est lucrum.
    • To despise money on some occasions is a very great gain.
    • Terence, Adelphi, II. 2. 8.
  • Not greedy of filthy lucre.
    • I Timothy, III. 3.
  • The love of money is the root of all evil.
    • I Timothy, VI. 10.
  • A fool and his money be soon at debate.
    • Thomas Tusser, Good Husbandry. "A fool and his money are soon parted." George Buchanan, tutor to James VI. of Scotland, to a courtier after winning a bet as to which could make the coarser verse. See Walsh, Handy Book of Literary Curiosities.
  • It is money makes the mare to trot.
  • No, let the monarch's bags and coffers hold
    The flattering, mighty, nay, all-mighty gold.
  • I think this piece will help to boil thy pot.
    • John Wolcot, The bard complimenteth Mr. West on his Lord Nelson (c. 1790). (Probably first use of "pot-boiler.").

[edit] The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)

Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 177.
  • One cannot help regretting that where money is concerned, it is so much the rule to overlook moral obligations.
    • Malins, V.-C., Ellis v. Houston (1878), L. R. 10 0. D. 240.
  • The greediness of gain is the only principle on which a stranger can be induced to furnish a stranger.
    • Burnett, J., Earl of Chesterfield v. Janssen (1750), 2 Ves. 125.
  • Common people do not make such distinction between money and land, as persons conversant in Law Matters do.
  • It has been quaintly said "that the reason why money cannot be followed is, because it has no ear-mark ": But this is not true. The true reason is, upon account of the currency of it: it cannot be recovered after it has passed in currency.
  • I am a great friend to the action for money had and received: it is a very beneficial action, and founded on principles of eternal justice.
  • Any man who spends his income, whether large or small, benefits the community by putting money in circulation.
    • Kekewich, J., In re Nottage (1895), L. R. 2 C. D. [1895], p. 653.
  • "We, as lawyers, as men of business, as men of experience, know perfectly well what evils necessarily result from handing over a great family estate to a mortgagee in possession, whose only chance of getting his money is to sacrifice the interests of everybody to money-getting."
    • Lindley, L.J., In re Marquis of Ailesbury's Settled Estates (1891), L. J. Rep. 61 C. D. 123.


[edit] Misattributed

  • In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is called 'Colonial Scrip.' We issue it in proper proportion to make the goods and pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one. In this manner, by creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay, to anyone. You see, a legitimate government can both spend and lend money into circulation, while banks can only lend significant amounts of their promissory bank notes, for they can neither give away nor spend but a tiny fraction of the money the people need. Thus, when your bankers here in England place money in circulation, there is always a debt principal to be returned and usury to be paid. The result is that you have always too little credit in circulation to give the workers full employment. You do not have too many workers, you have too little money in circulation, and that which circulates, all bears the endless burden of unpayable debt and usury.
    • Attributed to Benjamin Franklin Autobiography. These words do not appear in Franklin's Autobiography or any other work of his.
  • It is perhaps well enough that the people of the Nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
  • Variant: If the American people knew the corruption in our money system there would be revolution before morning.
    • Attributed to Henry Ford by Charles Binderup (March 19, 1937), Congressional Record—House 81:2528. The quote is preceded by "It was Henry Ford who said, in substance, this", which indicates that this is likely just a paraphrase, not an exact quote.
  • If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and the corporations will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
    • Attributed to Thomas Jefferson, The Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill, (1809). No such document exists. The book Respectfully Quoted says this is "obviously spurious", noting that the OED's earliest citation for the word "deflation" is from 1920. The earliest known appearance of this quote is from 1935 (Testimony of Charles C. Mayer, Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency, House of Representatives, Seventy-fourth Congress, First Session, on H.R. 5357, p. 799).
  • I have two great enemies, the southern army in front of me and the financial institutions, in the rear. Of the two, the one in the rear is the greatest enemy.
    • Attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Not found in Lincoln's works. This earliest this quote has been found is 1941.
  • I see in the future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the war.
  • The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers..... The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprises, the maintenance of stable government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power.
  • History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.
    • Attributed to James Madison, 4th US President. This is actually a comment by Olive Cushing Dwinell in her book The Story of Our Money (1946), pp. 71–72.
  • The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantages...will bear its burden without complaint, and perhaps without suspecting that the system is inimical to their best interests.
    • Attributed to Senator John Sherman in a letter supposedly sent from the Rothschild Brothers of London to New York bankers Ikleheimer, Morton, and Vandergould, June 25, 1863. The letters are forgeries that could not have been written before 1876. Further, no evidence of a firm with the name "Ikleheimer, Morton, and Vandergould" has been found.
  • If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.
    • Attributed to an editorial in the Times of London in 1865. No such editorial ever appeared. The earliest known appearance is in The Flaming Sword, Vol. XII, No. 42 (2 September 1898), p. 7

[edit] See also

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