greed Quotes

Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts, and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had been forgotten: his promise and the doctor’s warning were both things of the past, and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the treasure, find and board the Hispaniola under cover of night, cut every honest throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and riches.

But it was not its size that now impressed my companions; it was the knowledge that seven hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was bound up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of them.

“And, you remember our original intent was to use the emerging technology of genetic engineering to make money. A lot of money.”

“From a business standpoint, that makes helping mankind a very risky business. Personally, I would never help mankind.”

“The ideals of anarchism were perfect for me. I believed that capitalism was the source of all greed, inequality, and destruction in the world. I thought that big corporations were running the world (which I now know they do) and by supporting them, I was condoning their evil ways (which is true, but a girl’s gotta put gas in her car).”

“For the love of gain would reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger, and the possession of capital enabled the more powerful to reduce the smaller towns to subjection.”

“Yeah, that’s right; money is the greatest single problem-solver known to man...”

“I was making good money too, and it was honestly hard to consider walking away from it.”

“Why was there nothing it refused? No misery, no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything. Just once, could it say, No thank you? I just ate and can’t hold another bite? . . . But my greedy brain says, Oh thanks, I’d love more . . . my brain would go right ahead and take it and never say, No thank you. I don’t want to know or have to remember that.”

“They much more admire and detest the folly of those who, when they see a rich man, though they neither owe him anything, nor are in any sort dependent on his bounty, yet, merely because he is rich, give him little less than divine honours, even though they know him to be so covetous and base-minded that, notwithstanding all his wealth, he will not part with one farthing of it to them as long as he lives!”

“This your island, which seemed as to this particular the happiest in the world, will suffer much by the cursed avarice of a few persons.”

“Av’rice, envy, pride, Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On fire.”

“You’ve cheated death too many times.Greed may do your bidding, but death serves no man.”

“God gave him enough, and yet he wants all. Such are the pale-faces.”

″‘The king who owned this island,’ said Caspian slowly, and his face flushed as he spoke, ‘would soon be the richest of all kings of the world. I claim this land for ever as a Narnian possession. It shall be called Goldwater Island. And I bind all of you to secrecy. No one must know of this. Not even Drinian – on pain of death, do you hear?’ ‘Who are you talking to?’ said Edmund. ‘I’m no subject of yours. If anything it’s the other way round. I am one of the four ancient sovereigns of Narnia and you are under allegiance to the High King my brother.’ ‘So it has come to that, King Edmund, has it?’ said Caspian, laying his hand on his sword-hilt.”

“But that’s the nature of money. Whether you have it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, it will try to define your days. Our task as human beings is not to let it.”

“He would on no account have exchanged those coins, which had become his familiars, for other coins with unknown faces.”

“Perhaps there was hardly a person in the parish who would not have held that to go to church every Sunday in the calendar would have shown a greedy desire to stand well with Heaven, and get an undue advantage over their neighbours.”

“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass,-- The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”

“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.”

“I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for the landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title for the children.”

“A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”

“One rascally night between midnight and four, Slinky Malinki stole MORE than before.”

“Power is infectious. Power is greedy.”

“Ah, now that would be greedy of me, wouldn’t it? All things considered, though, I’d be heartily embarrassed if Sebell- my Journeyman is to have possession of the other egg- secured a queen instead.”

″‘We can’t have a house? A little back yard to run around in for a change?’ ‘Oh, sure,’ Al snapped. ‘Today it’s a house you want. Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe the moon!‘”

“Greed moves the goalposts, preventing one from ever enjoying what one has.”

″‘Why does he bother now?’ as Aunt Grace quickly put it, her voice full of suspicion. ‘He’s after the money,’ Christina said, having heard it so often before.”

“I gave up growing when I was extremely small, along with all the other nasty childish habits like laziness and disobedience and greed and sloppiness and untidiness and stupidity.”

“I came west in search of a better life, but my American dream was turned into a nightmare by poverty and hardship and greed.”

Here was Durham’s, for instance, owned by a man who was trying to make as much money out of it as he could, and did not care in the least how he did it;

“Oh, what a detestable crew they are, these mercenary speculators!”