Money and Wealth

The ordinary object of human endeavor—property, outward success, luxury—have always seemed to me contemptible.

I was originally supposed to become an engineer, but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.

The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship material success as a preparation for his future career.

Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.

It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.

Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.

A clever theft was praiseworthy amongst the Spartans; and it is equally so amongst Christians, provided it be on a sufficiently large scale.

Virtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and all other good things to man, both to the individual and to the state.

How many things I can do without!

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

The chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

The trouble, Mr Goldwyn, is that you are only interested in art and I am only interested in money.

I’m one of the undeserving poor … up agen middle-class morality all the time … What is middle-class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything.

I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.

You have to choose (as a voter) between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.

The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Rent is that portion of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.