quotations about greed
The wickedness of man is boundless; it seems at first as if a trifle would content him, but his passions invigorate by gratification; always indulged, always craving, and continually preying on him who feeds him.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Greedy folk have long arms.
ENGLISH PROVERBS
Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.
MASON COOLEY
City Aphorisms
When one sees the way in which wealth-getting enters as an ideal into the very bone and marrow of our generation, one wonders whether a revival of the belief that poverty is a worthy religious vocation may not be ... the spiritual reform which our time stands most in need of.
WILLIAM JAMES
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Let us be clear at the outset that greed is operative in the free market, in the same way that numerous other vices are to be found wherever human beings exist in this life. Is there lust among married people? Of course. Does that mean that marriage encourages lust? Of course not. Can one find pride among ministers? Sure. Does that mean that ministry leads to egoism as rain leads to mud? Hardly. You get the point. Greed is no more the core of economic liberty than lust or pride is the essence of marriage or ministry.
ROBERT A. SIRICO
"The Moral Potential of the Free Economy", For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty
The love for material things grows like a fungus in the soul and destroys the loveliness of the human heart utterly.
CARYLL HOUSELANDER
The Reed of God
The reason that greed or avarice is one of the "deadly sins" is that it kills the soul to the extent that it substitutes things for God as the object of worship and inclines people to commit other moral violations along the way.
ROBERT A. SIRICO
"The Moral Potential of the Free Economy", For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty
If you ask for too much, you lose even that which you have.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
Some men think that the globe is a sponge that God puts into their hands to squeeze for their own garden or flower-pot.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the LORD will prosper.
SOLOMON
Proverbs 28:25
The covetous man is ever in want.
HORACE
Epistles
Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritence with him.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Avarice is a passion full of paradox, a madness full of method; for, although the miser is the most mercenary of all beings, yet he serves the worst master, more faithfully than some Christians do the best, and will take nothing for it. He falls down and worships the God of this world, but will have neither its pomps, its vanities, nor its pleasures, for his trouble. He begins to accumulate treasure as a mean to happiness, and by a common but morbid association, he continues to accumulate it as an end. He lives poor, to die rich; and is the mere jailer of his house, and the turnkey of his wealth. Impoverished by his gold, he slaves harder to imprison it in his chest, than his brother slave to liberate it from the mine.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
I am Covetousness, begotten of an old churl in a leather bag: and might I now obtain my wish, this house, you and all, should turn to gold, that I might lock you safe into my chest.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
There are some sordid minds, formed of slime and filth, to whom interest and gain are what glory and virtue are to superior souls; they feel no other pleasure but to acquire money.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères
Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.
JANWILLEM VAN DE WETERING
Just a Corpse at Twilight
Hunger for gold is made greater as more gold is acquired.
AURELIUS CLEMENS PRUDENTIUS
Hamartigenia
The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
The Brothers Karamazov
If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Hobbit
It was not curiosity that killed the goose who laid the golden egg, but an insatiable greed that devoured common sense.
E. A. BUCCHIANERI
Brushstrokes of a Gadfly