Quotes About Value

after the man had left, the mothers who had sold their children felt empty and sad. They felt as if this act, done freely by themselves (no one had forced them, no one had threatened them) had not been performed willingly. They felt cheated as well, as if the price had been too low. Why hadn't they demanded more?

Money was the only measure of worth, for everyone, they got no respect as mothers.

A thing is valued, she says, only if it is rare and hard to get.

Pearls are congealed oyster spit.

He has tried imagining her as a prostitute—he often plays this private mental game with various women he encounters—but he can't picture any man actually paying for her services. It would be like paying to be run over by a wagon, and would be, like that experience, a distinct threat to the health.

but love was undependable, it came and then it went; so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who wanted to make a profit from you made sure you were fed enough and not damaged by too much. Also there were many who had neither love nor money value and having one of these things was better than having nothing.

Nothing should be carelessly thrown away, not even wine from sinful places. There was no such thing as garbage, trash, or dirt, only matter that hadn't been put to a proper use.

Quién puede resistirse a la tentación de ser considerado indispensable?

They were too careful around me, as if I was breakable. It was like I was a prize cat they were cat-sitting: you'd take your own cat for granted, you'd be casual about it, but someone else's cat would be another story because if you lost that cat you would feel guilty about it in a completely different way.

but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who wanted to make a profit from you would make sure you were fed enough and not damaged too much.

it's one of the shapes money takes when it freezes.

Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money.

L'essere sana di mente è un patrimonio che accumulo come un tempo la gente accumulava il denaro. Lo tengo da parte, per quando sarà il momento.

Free love," Aunt Beatrice said scornfully. "It's never free. There's always a price.

a young woman in desperate financial straits, with no visible relations and no nest egg or trust fund or fallback. People would shake their heads — a shame but what could you do, and at least she had something of marketable value, namely her young ass, and therefore she wouldn't starve to death, and nobody had to feel guilty.

Single strand of pearls, wild, not cultured. (Worth it, she said: only the wild ones had souls.)

Smiles were hard; they could turn into grimaces or leers, but if you got a smile right, they'd spend extra for it. Amazing to remember, now, what people would once spend extra for.

thinking: a rather prosaic, low-tech concept, easily forgotten and routinely underrated. But

A man's worth is measured by his importance to society and to humanity generally

The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts.....Gerald O'Hara, Gone With The Wind.

She could see so clearly now that he was only a childish fancy, no more important really than her spoiled desire for the aquamarine earbobs she had coaxed out of Gerald. For, once she owned the earbobs, they had lost their value, as everything except money lost its value once it was hers.

But, hell, I wouldn't have grudged him your body. I know how little bodies mean - especially women's bodies. But I do grudge him your heart and your dear, hard, unscrupulous mind. He doesn't want your mind, the fool, and I don't want your body. I can buy women cheap. But I do want your mind and your heart, and I'll never have them.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything...for 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts, and don't you be forgetting it! 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for–worth dying for.