Quotes About Wealth

THE LAST 500 YEARS HAVE WITNESSED A breathtaking series of revolutions. The earth has been united into a single ecological and historical sphere. The economy has grown exponentially, and humankind today enjoys the kind of wealth that used to be the stuff of fairy tales. Science and the Industrial Revolution have given humankind superhuman powers and practically limitless energy. The social order has been completely transformed, as have politics, daily life and human psychology.

In medieval Europe, aristocrats spent their money carelessly on extravagant luxuries, whereas peasants lived frugally, minding every penny. Today, the tables have turned. The rich take great care managing their assets and investments, while the less well heeled go into debt buying cars and televisions they don't really need.

money isn't a material reality – it is a psychological construct.

cuando un terrateniente, un tejedor o un zapatero obtiene mayores beneficios de los que necesita para mantener a su familia, utiliza el excedente para emplear a más ayudantes, con el fin de aumentar todavía más sus beneficios. Cuantos más beneficios obtenga, más ayudantes podrá emplear. De ahí se sigue que un aumento en los beneficios de los empresarios privados es la base del aumento de la riqueza y la prosperidad colectivas.

Yet it might be poised to create the most unequal of all societies.

Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza.

The economic pie of 2014 is far larger than the pie of 1500, but it is distributed so unevenly that many African peasants and Indonesian labourers return home after a hard day's work with less food than did their ancestors 500 years ago.

The empires built by bankers and merchants in frock coats and top hats defeated the empires built by kings and noblemen in gold clothes and shining armour.

Property is a prerequisite for long-term inequality.

What Smith says is, in fact, that greed is good, and that by becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself. Egoism is altruism.

Even the Roman Empire – the only important premodern European empire – derived most of its wealth from its North African, Balkan and Middle Eastern provinces. Rome's western European provinces were a poor Wild West, which contributed little aside from minerals and slaves. Northern Europe was so desolate and barbarous that it wasn't even worth conquering.

Even more alarmingly, the richest one hundred people together own more than the poorest four billion.

Indeed, in most countries today overeating has become a far worse problem than famine. In the eighteenth century Marie Antoinette allegedly advised the starving masses that if they ran out of bread, they should just eat cake instead. Today, the poor are following this advice to the letter. Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza

Heaven and hell too ceased to be real places somewhere above the clouds and below the volcanoes, and were instead interpreted as internal mental states. You experience hell every time you ignite the fires of anger and hatred within your heart; and you enjoy heavenly bliss every time you forgive your enemies, repent your own misdeeds and share your wealth with the poor.

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

It's okay to be eccentric if you're rich; otherwise you're just crazy.

Wars not only make nations; they make bankers.

Se g?sesc oameni în sat care, la opt guri, au o singur? lingur?. ?i-o trec din mîn? în mîn?. Noi, se cheam? c? sîntem oameni cu stare. Avem patru-cinci linguri în cas?...

People wealth consists upon their freedom, individual resources and good social life.

Too rich to be relevant to the world's poor, [Europe] attracts immigration but cannot encourage imitation. Too passive regarding international security. Too self-satisfied, it acts as if its central political goal is to become the worlds most comfortable retirement home. Too set in its ways, it fears multicultural diversity

If you expect to have it all, you will have nothing. Learn to be happy with nothing -- and you will have it all!

Money won't make you happy... but everybody wants to find out for themselves.

If standard of living is your major objective, quality of life almost never improves, but if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of living almost always improves.

money is not everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen