Mammon

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Mammon led them on—
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heaven: for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific.
John Milton

Mammon /ˈmæmən/ in the New Testament of the Bible is commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or any entity that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. In the Middle Ages it was often personified as a deity and sometimes included in the seven princes of Hell.

Quotes[edit]

  • Of course the avaricious man of our day, be he landlord, merchant, industrialist, does not adore sacks of coins or bundles of banknotes in some little chapel and upon some little altar. He does not kneel before these spoils of other men, nor does he address prayers or canticles to them amidst odorous clouds of incense. But he proclaims that money is the only good, and he yields it all his soul. A cult sincere, without hypocrisy, never growing weary, never forsworn. Whenever he says, in the debasement of his heart and his speech, that he loves money for the delights it can purchase, he lies or he terribly deceives himself, this very assertion being belied at the very moment he utters it by every one of his acts, by the infinite toil and pains to which he gladly condemns himself in order to acquire or conserve that money which is but the visible figure of the Blood of Christ circulating throughout all His members.
    • Léon Bloy, Pilgrim of the Absolute (1947), pp. 89-90
  • Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει· οὐ δύνασθε Θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ.
    • No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.
  • Mammon led them on—
    Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
    From Heaven: for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
    Were always downward bent, admiring more
    The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
    Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
    In vision beatific.
  • Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
    Sees but a backward steward for the poor.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations[edit]

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 487.
  • I rose up at the dawn of day,—
    "Get thee away! get thee away!
    Pray'st thou for riches? Away, away!
    This is the throne of Mammon grey."
  • Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures
    To restless action spurs our fate!
    Cursed when for soft, indulgent leisures,
    He lays for us the pillows straight.
  • We cannot serve God and Mammon.
    • Matthew, VI. 24.
  • What treasures here do Mammon's sons behold!
    Yet know that all that which glitters is not gold.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

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