Quotes About Avarice

In the words of Morelly, the author of the influential treatise Le Code de la Nature, published in 1755: The only vice which I know in the universe is avarice; all the others, whatever name one gives them, are merely forms, degrees of it. . . . Analyze vanity, conceit, pride, ambition, deceitfulness, hypocrisy, villainy; break down the majority of our sophisticated virtues themselves, [they] all dissolve in this subtle and pernicious element, the desire to possess.

I have known tolerably well, a good many "successful" men—" big" financially—men famous during the last half-century, and a less interesting crowd I do not care to encounter. Not one that I have ever known would I care to meet again, either in this world or the next; nor is one of them associated in my mind with the idea of humor, thought or refinement. A set of mere money-getters and traders, they were essentially unattractive and uninteresting.

Greed is really the religion of vulgarity.

Nothing is good enough; we must know and have it all."

One of the interesting dichotomies of life is that the poor people are invariably very generous, and the rich people are the real cheapskates.

But ever since I was old enough to be cynical I have been visiting national parks, and they are a cure for cynicism, an exhilarating rest from the competitive avarice we call the American Way…. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. —Wallace Stegner, 1983

You can never have enough of that which you don't need.

Greed and peace preclude each other.

I entreat masters to live a good life and faithfully to instruct their scholars, especially that they may love God and learn to give themselves to knowledge, in order to promote His honour, the welfare of the state, and their own salvation, but not for the sake of avarice or the praise of man.

It seems to me that he died from a combination of two of the oldest and most insidious killers of all: ignorance and avarice.

If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that /needs/ no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we /must/ stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes.

The company held a little contest to select a name for the new system. One of the most creative of the names suggested was SAM CARP. This stood for "Still Another Manifestation of Capitalist Avarice Repressing the Proletariat." Needless to say, that wasn't selected. Another was the Teradyne Interactive Test System. That one was also not selected. Still another was Service Area Test Access Network. That, too, was not selected.

Smith's doctrine of self-interest did more than just turn avarice into a virtue; it turned classical virtue into a vice.

Most sailors were in their teens or twenties. Anyone who had reached his thirties was considered a veteran scalawag; by the time he had survived to that age, he had seen what life at sea held: brutality, loneliness, and disease; he had experienced flashes of camaraderie and heroism, as well as persistent dishonesty and callousness. He knew all about the avarice of shipowners, the uncomprehending indifference of kings under whose flags the expedition sailed, and the tyranny of captains.

Short is the way from need to greed.

for in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins.

Much wants more and loses all.

they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the

Human greed knows no limits.

Human greed knows no limits. – Nivellen

The invention of money opened a new field to human avarice by giving rise to usury and the practice of lending money at interest while the owner passes a life of idleness.

He was a swine whose only god was gold.

That's how the rich stay rich, ain't it? They didn' need it, but they didn' mind a bit more.

He hoarded his money, worked incessantly, and retained a lonely air.