Quotes to inspire and reflect

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

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.

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. ,

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Majestic mighty Wealth is the holiest of our gods.

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

Riches rather enlarge than satisfy appetites.

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

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

Not possession, but use, is the only riches.

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

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

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

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

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

All heiresses are beautiful.

Let there be / wealth without tears; enough for / the wise man who will ask no further.

Be not penny-wise: riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves; sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

The weak can be terrible / because they try furiously to appear strong.

Riches attract the attention, consideration, and congratulations of mankind.

I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.

The sick are the greatest danger for the healthy; it is not from the strongest that harm comes to the strong, but from the weakest.

He is a fool who tries to match his strength with the stronger. / He will lose his battle, and with the shame will be hurt also.

We have allowed a soft sentimentalism to form the atmosphere we breathe. And in that kind of atmosphere, a diffuse desire to do good has become a substitute for tough-minded plans and operations—a substitute for strategy.