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RICH (THE) --- RICH & POOR --- RIDICULE
RIDICULOUS
RIGHT --- RIGHT AND WRONG --- RIGHTEOUS

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RICH (THE)


see "MONEY" for related links


They must be especially envious when they
see the rich making fools of themselves,
squandering big sums on trivialities.... What
they do not understand is that folly is to a
great extent a question of opportunity, and
that fools, rich or poor, are always as
foolish as they can manage.
--Robertson Davies (1913—1995)
Canadian author and playwright.

Everyone asks if a man is rich, no
one if he is good.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to
my expense, and my expense is equal to my
wishes.
--Edward Gibbon (1737—1794)
English historian.
_Memories of My Life and Writings_

One of the reasons that so many people who achieve
fame and fortune don't find happiness is because,
almost by definition, if you reach that high estate
you are going to find yourself surrounded by the
lowest hangers-on in the world. It is not that you
get cut off from the real people; you just get cut
off from the good people. And pretty soon, if you
don't watch out, you can start to turn into a creep
yourself.
--Billie Jean King (1943— )
American professional tennis player.
_Billie Jean_ [1982]

If a man would guide his life by true philosophy,
he will find ample riches in a modest livelihood
enjoyed with a tranquil mind.
--Lucretius [Titus Lucretius Carus] (99—55 B.C.)
Latin poet and philosopher.
"De rerum natura" (On the Nature of Things)

Being rich isn't about money. Being rich is a state
of mind. Some of us, no matter how much money we have,
will never be free enough to take time to stop and eat
the heart of the watermelon. And some of us will be
rich without ever being more than a paycheck ahead
of the game.
--Harvey B. Mackay
American public speaker.

When riches and virtue are placed together in the
scales of the balance, the one always rises while
the other falls.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_

Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern
society than poor women without chastity.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

The wretchedness of being rich is that you live with
rich people. To suppose, as we all suppose, that we
could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is
like supposing that we could drink all day and stay
sober.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.



RICH & POOR

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see "MONEY" for related links


In every society where property exists, there will ever be
a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly,
equal laws can never be expected. They will either be
made by numbers, to plunder the few who are rich, or
by influence, to fleece the many who are poor.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
_A Defense of the Constitutions of Government
of the United States of America_ [1787—1788]

No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by
turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes
a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what
he is, not according to what he has.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher].
_Life Thoughts: Gathered from the Extemporaneous
Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_ [1858]

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The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower
is servant to the lender.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 22:7


A rich man may be wise in his own eyes, but a poor
man who has discernment sees through him.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 28:11 NIV

-

There are those who believe that if you will only
legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous,
their prosperity will leak through on those below.
The Democratic idea, however, has been that if
you make the masses prosperous, their prosperity
will find its way up through every class which
rests upon them.
--William Jennings Bryan (1860—1925)
American Democratic and Populist politician
who ran for the presidency three times.
without success.
In his "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic
Party National Convention, Chicago [8 July 1896].

There are only two families in the world,
the Haves and the Have-Nots.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 20.

You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

If rich, it is easy enough to conceal your wealth; but if poor,
it is not quite so easy to conceal your poverty. We shall find
that it is less difficult to hide a thousand guineas than one
hole in our coat.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.
--English folk poem [c. 1764]

If you live according to nature, you will never be poor;
if you live according to (public) opinion, you will never
be rich.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Seneca the Younger (5? B.C.—A.D.65)
"On Philosophy, the Guide of Life" tr. Richard M. Gummere [1918]

Youth is the best time to be rich
and the best time to be poor.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well
as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets,
and to steal bread.
--Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1921.
_Le Lys rouge_ (The Red Lily) [1894]

I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the
measures of the Government are directed to the purpose
of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
--William Henry Harrison (1773—1841)
American army officer and 9th President
of the United States [1841].
Speech [1 October 1840].

I know that a man who shows me his wealth is like the beggar who
shows me his poverty; they are both looking for alms from me, the
rich man for the alms of my envy, the poor man for the alms of my
guilt.
--Ben Hecht (1893—1964)
American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.

A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body
without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly
the worst ingredients of poverty.
--Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696—1782)
Scottish lawyer, agriculturalist, and philosopher.

There's nothing surer,
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer,
In the meantime, in between time,
Ain't we got fun.
--Gus Kahn (1886—1941)
German-born American songwriter.
& Raymond B. Egan (1890—1952)
Canadian-born American lyricist.
"Ain't We Got Fun" [1921 song]

If a free society cannot help the many who
are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].
Inaugural Address [20 January 1961].

Hazard not your wealth on a poor man's advice.
--Don Juan Manuel (1282—1349)
Spanish author & nobleman.
_El Conde Lucanor_

We ought to change the sign on the Statue of Liberty
to read, 'This time around send us your rich.'
--Felix Rohatyn (1928— )
Austrian-born American businessman.
Felix Rohatyn was a governor of the New York Stock Exchange, Chairman of the
New York Municipal Authority, and US Ambassador to France.

Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern
society than poor women without chastity.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925.

A rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
--Slogan of the protesters against conscription
in New York, [13 July 1863].
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004].
Cohan & Major explain:
The phrase originated in the South in 1861. $300
bought exemption from the draft, introduced by
Lincoln in the summer to replenish the Union Army.

I am weary seeing our laboring classes so
wretchedly housed, fed, and clothed, while
thousands of dollars are wasted every year
over unsightly statues. If these great men
must have outdoor memorials let them be
in the form of handsome blocks of buildings
for the poor.
--Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815—1902)
Leading figure of the Women's Rights movement.
Diary entry [1886], in
Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch
_Elizabeth Cady Stanton_ [1922].

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise
and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.
--Sir William Temple (1628—1699)
English statesman and diplomat.
John Timbs
_Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 169 [1829]

Economy, the poor man's mint—
extravagance, the rich man's pitfall.
--Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810—1889)
English writer.
In _The Complete Poetical Works of Martin Farquhar_, p. 222 [1850].

Mr. Beecher's farm is not a triumph. It would be easier if he
worked it on shares with some one; but he cannot find any
body who is willing to stand half the expense, and not many
that are able. Still, persistence in any cause is bound to
succeed. He was a very inferior farmer when he first began,
but a prolonged and unflinching assault upon his agricultural
difficulties has had its effect at last, and he is now rising
fast from affluence to poverty.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's Farm" [1885]

-

TOPICAL

I heard an author on C-SPAN-2 Saturday [in 2003] afternoon
talking about this very thing: "the rich get richer and the poor
get poorer." His general point:

It isn't actually true, you know. The poor also get richer.
Consider: A century or so ago, the rich man had a horsedrawn
carriage, the poor man walked. Big difference in how far and how
fast one traveled. Today, the rich man may drive a Rolls, while
the poor man drives a Ford. Not as much difference, they both get
where they need to go just as fast. A century ago, the rich man
lived to 65 or so, the poor man died at 45. Today, the rich man
lives to 80, the poor man to 75. Not such a big difference. A
century ago, the rich man had servants running to bring him hot
and cold water, and remove his thundermug, while the poor man
went to the well himself, and the outhouse. Today, the only
difference is in the cost of the fixtures at the end of the plumbing,
and the kind of decor in the room around the plumbing. Not such
a difference. Then, a rich man was patron to professionals who
entertained him when he wished, while the poor either stood outside
and listened, or entertained themselves. Today, we all listen to
the same professional entertainment over the same electronic media,
and if the rich have a bigger room with more powerful speakers and
a bigger screen, it is still not such a big difference.

This was much paraphrased from memory, since I couldn't transcribe
his talk, and I didn't write down his name....This comparison could be
extended many other places, the exercise is left to the student. Yes,
there are differences in income between people. There always will be.
Get over it! If you really want it bad enough to do WHATEVER IS
NECESSARY, you can place yourself anywhere you wish along that
line. Those people at the upper end of that line did so. Whether you
are so willing, or not, stop asking me to contribute part of my effort
to reduce your effort. My effort is directed at placing myself where
I want on that line.

--David Kiefer, alt.quotations

-

-

One of the most surprising results to emerge from the accumulating
official data — surprising, given the breathless media accounts of
successes of the boom in the closing years of the Nineties — is the
almost startling disparity in incomes that has been developing. By
the end of 1999, according to data compiled by the Congressional
Budget Office, four out of five American households, or about 217
million people, were taking home a thinner slice of the economic
pie than in 1977. At the same time, more than 90 percent of the
increase in national family income was going to the richest 1 percent
of households. Incomes of the richest Americans were rising
twice as fast as those of the middle class.

Even more startling are the figures for the rewards gained by
business leaders. In 1980, heads of American corporations were
earning over forty times more than their workers. By the early
Nineties, just as the boom was getting under way, they were earning
more than ninety times more than their workers. By the end of
the Nineties, the gap between top and bottom had widened even
more astoundingly. Then, heads of American corporations were
earning 419 times as much as industrial workers! This figure
prompted the Economist to call it the greatest peacetime transfer
of wealth in history, a sober assessment given the dimensions of
the extraordinary shift in economic wealth and power.

--Haynes Johnson (1931— )
American journalist; winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize
for National Reporting.
_The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years_ [2001]

-




RIDICULE

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see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links


RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show
that the person of whom they are uttered
is devoid of the dignity of character
distinguishing him who utters them.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

Neither will I make myself anybody's
laughing-stock.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 5.

What the fool cannot learn he laughs at, thinking
that by his laughter he shows superiority instead
of latent idiocy.
--Marie Corelli (1855—1924)
British author.
_The Life Everlasting_ [1911]

Acquaintance: They deride thee, O Diogenes!
Diogenes: But I am not derided.
--Diogenes (404—323 B.C.)
Greek Cynic philosopher.
Format adapted.
In Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal [1870], undated.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the
hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,
rather than to be false, and to incur my
own abhorrence.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.

We grow tired of everything but turning others
into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on
their defects.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
"On the Pleasure of Hating"

-

Nothing has more retarded the advancement
of learning than the disposition of vulgar
minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot
comprehend.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In "The Rambler" (English jouranal), 117 [30 April 1751].


Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
"London: A Poem" [1738]

-

Ridicule is the best test of truth.
--Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621—1683)
British statesman.
In Lord Chesterfield, _Letter to his son_ [6 February 1752].

He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Timon of Athens_

When a man is unable to answer a thing,
he ridicules it.
--Leo Tolstoy (1828—1910)
Russian novelist.
_Thoughts and Aphorisms, 1886-1893_

No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No
political church, no nobility, no royalty or other
fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

The greatest height of heroism to which
an individual, like a people, can attain is
to know how to face ridicule.
--Miguel de Unamuno (1864—1936)
Spanish author, philosopher, and educator.
_Tragic Sense of Life_ [1913],
"Don Quixote Today"

--

pasquinade (noun) [pζs-kwκn-'neyd]
A piece of writing that ridicules a specific person
and is posted in a public place; a public lampoon of
a particular person.



Click picture to ZOOM
RIDICULOUS

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.

see "NONSENSE"
see "SILLINESS"


Nihil tam absurde dici potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo pilosophorum.
(There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it.)
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De Divinatione_, bk. II, sec. 58

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Aunt Jane observed, the second time
She tumbled off a bus,
'The step is short from the Sublime
To the ridiculous.'
--Harry Graham (1874—1936)
British writer and journalist.
_Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes_ [1899]

& note:

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
(To the Abbe du Pradt, on the return from
Russia [1812], referring to the retreat
from Moscow.)

-

-----

cockamamie (adjective) ['kok-κ-mey-mee]
(Slang) Ridiculous, outlandish, implausible, not worthy of note.
Usage: "Cockamamie" is a lexical orphan which was in general
use between 1930 and 1970, but which has been in decline
ever since.




RIGHT

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see "CHARACTER" for related links
see: "WRONG"
see: "RIGHT & WRONG" (below)


All persons ought to endeavor to follow what
is right, and not what is established.
--Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

It is by no means necessary that I should live, but it
is by all means necessary that I should act rightly.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
Journal [1854]

Those who believe they are exclusively in the right
are generally those who achieve something.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist {grandson of T.H. Huxley}.
_Proper Studies_ [1927] "Note on Dogma"

A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the
chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether
in doing anything he is doing right or wrong — acting the
part of a good man or of a bad.
--Socrates (470?—399 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Plato (427?-347 B.C.) _Apology_ tr. Benjamin Jowett [1894]

Standing for right when it is unpopular
is a true test of moral character.
--Margaret Chase Smith (1897—1995)
Maine senator.
Speech at Westbrook Junior College, Portland, Maine [7 June 1953].

I shall continue to do what I think is right
whether anybody likes it or not.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
1950, in William Hillman, _Mr. President_ [1952].

Always do right. This will gratify some
people, and astonish the rest.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Note to the Young People's Society,
Greenpoint Presbyterian Church,
Brooklyn, N.Y. [16 February 1901].

Some good must come by clinging to the right. Conscience is a man's
compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one
perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one
must try to follow its direction.
--Vincent van Gogh (1853—1890)
Dutch painter.

-----

prerogative (noun) [prκ-'rah-gκ-tiv]
An exclusive or special right emanating from
an office, organization, or social class.



RIGHT AND WRONG

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.

see "CHARACTER" for related links


I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live
by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody
that stands right, stand with him while he is right,
and part with him when he goes wrong.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

It takes less time to do a thing right than
it does to explain why you did it wrong.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.

Those who follow the wrong have generally first taken care
to be voluntarily ignorant of the right.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
"On Education," inaugural address on being installed as rector,
University of St. Andrews (Scotland) [1 February 1867].

The ultimate decision about what is accepted as right
and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom
but by the disappearance of the groups that have
adhered to the 'wrong' beliefs.
--Friedrich A. von Hayek (1899—1992)
Austrian-born British economist; co-winner of the
1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was
right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.
--Charles Wadsworth (1814?—1882)



RIGHTEOUS

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.

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening
than when they are convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that they are right.
--Laurens van der Post (1906—1996)
South African explorer and writer.
_The Lost World of the Kalahari_ [1958]


end page



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