Quotes to inspire and reflect

A fat kitchen, a lean will.

Will cannot be quenched against its will.

Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as he becomes sick.

No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes the short cut to everything.

The unrighteous are never really fortunate.

It is an esoteric doctrine of society, that a little wickedness is good to make muscle; as if conscience were not good for hands and legs.

Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

There can be no whiter whiteness than this one: / An insurance man’s shirt on its morning run.

This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.

The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.

How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

Cries of despair, misery, sobbing grief are a kind of wealth.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

They who are sad find somehow sweetness in tears.

Girls usually have a papier mache face on their wedding day.

Let there be no more weddings. Get thee to a nunnery.

Who knows whither the clouds have fled? / In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; / And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, / The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is, that people can commend it without envy. ,

A cloudy day, or a little sunshine, have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most real blessings or misfortunes.

The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms.

You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows.

Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it.

Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life.

Many a man has found the acquisition of wealth only a change, not an end of miseries.

As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocket- book often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

True wealth is not a static thing. It is a living thing made out of the disposition of men to create and to distribute the good things of life with rising standards of living.

We may see the small value God has for riches by the people he gives them to.

There are men who gain from their wealth only the fear of losing it.

The most valuable of all human possessions, next to a superior and disdainful air, is the reputation of being well to do. Nothing else so neatly eases one’s way through life, especially in democratic countries.

In his heart everyone knows that the only people who get rich from the “get rich quick books are those who write them.

Wealth is the means, and people are the ends. All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people.

It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side.

Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.

Majestic mighty Wealth is the holiest of our gods.

All else—valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth—is secondary to the charm of riches.

Riches rather enlarge than satisfy appetites.

Rich men feel misfortunes that fly over poor men’s heads.

Not possession, but use, is the only riches.

That glittering hope is immemorial / And beckons many men / To their undoing.

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth; it is the beginning of wisdom.

If some appalling disaster befalls, there’s / Always a way for the rich.

All heiresses are beautiful.

To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.