Sourced and curated.

Prosperity brings with it an intoxication which inferior men are unable to resist.

Honore de Balzac

La Comedie humaine · 1837

★ 1.9

To trust people is a luxury in which only the wealthy can indulge; the poor cannot afford it.

E.M. Forster

Howards End · 1910

★ 1.9

Novel · Philosophical literature

Property, possessions and riches had also finally trapped him. They were no longer a game and a toy. They had become a chain and a burden.

Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha · 1922

★ 1.9

Film · Drama (film) · Drama

Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money if all you want is to make a lot of money.

Mr. Bernstein

Citizen Kane · 1941

★ 1.9

Newspaper

If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man.

J. Paul Getty

Observer · 1957

★ 1.9

Historical literature

The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

Sallust

The War of Catiline · 42 BC

★ 2.0

Poem

It is not he who has many possessions that you should call blessed: he more rightly deserves that name who knows how to use the gods' gifts wisely and to endure harsh poverty, and who fears dishonor more than death.

Horace

Odes · 11 BC

★ 2.0

Biography · Historical literature

How strongly does this bear out the truth of Plato's maxim, that he who wishes to be really rich ought to lessen his desires rather than increase his property, because if a man places no bounds to his covetousness, he never will be free from want and misery.

Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives

★ 2.0

Essay · Philosophical literature

A great fortune is a great slavery.

Seneca

★ 2.1

Film · Drama (film) · Drama

You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.

Kane

Citizen Kane · 1941

★ 2.1

Song · Rock music

Please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste.

The Rolling Stones

Sympathy for the Devil · 1968

★ 2.1

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

Jane Austen

Mansfield Park · 1814

★ 2.2

Autobiography and memoir

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden · 1854

★ 2.2

Economic literature

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

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 2.3

Essay

Among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

G.K. Chesterton

1912

★ 3.5

Essay · Feminist literature

Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.

Mary Astell

An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex · 1696

★ 3.5

In every well-governed state, wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing.

Anatole France

1908

★ 3.5

Speech · Commencement address

I wish people could realize all their dreams and wealth and fame so that they could see that it’s not where you’re going to find your sense of completion.

Jim Carrey

2014

★ 3.5

Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Proverbs 30:8

686 BC

★ 3.6

Play · Comedy (play)

I glory More in the cunning purchase of my wealth, Than in the glad possession.

Ben Jonson

Volpone · 1606

★ 3.6

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we have, the thirstier we become, and the same is true of fame.

Arthur Schopenhauer

1851

★ 3.6

Play · Drama (play)

I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

George Bernard Shaw

1905

★ 3.6

Newspaper

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is better.

Beatrice Kaufman

1937

★ 3.6

Sociology · Economic literature

Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Affluent Society · 1958

★ 3.6

Many evil men are rich, and good men poor, But we shall not exchange with them our excellence for riches.

Solon

Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives · 560 BC

★ 3.7

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

So our Lord God commonly gives riches to those gross asses to whom He vouchsafes nothing else.

Matthew 6:19-20 · 60

★ 3.7

Martin Luther

1566

★ 3.7

Philosophical literature

Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.

Francis Bacon

1605

★ 3.7

Essay

Why should man be in love with his fetters, though of gold?

Francis Bacon

The Remains · 1626

★ 3.7

People have declaimed against luxury for two thousand years, in verse and in prose, and people have always delighted in it.

Voltaire

1764

★ 3.7

Short story

In Eden the only wealth is nakedness and unawareness.

Carlos Fuentes

1993

★ 3.7

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Matthew 16:26 · 60

★ 3.8

Speech · Political speech

Franklin D. Roosevelt

First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933

★ 3.8

He that trusteth in his riches shall fall.

Proverbs 11:28

686 BC

★ 3.9

Almanac

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Benjamin Franklin

1736

★ 3.9

Almanac

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his Portion.

Benjamin Franklin

1744

★ 3.9

Almanac

He who multiplies Riches multiplies Cares.

Benjamin Franklin

1744

★ 3.9

Film · Drama (film) · Drama

Now mama said there’s only so much fortune a man really needs…and the rest is just for showing off.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump · 1994

★ 3.9

Political literature · Philosophical literature

Riches, knowledge and honour are but several sorts of power.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan · 1651

★ 4.0

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.

Socrates

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 4.0

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool.

Matthew 6:24 · 60

★ 4.5

Philosophical literature

Aristotle

Rhetoric · 322 BC

★ 5.7

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.