Return
Home
The
Credits
The
Cast
Act
1
Act
2
Act
3
The
End
The
Reviews
Photos
     
 
WEALTH
WEAPONS --- WEASELS

Click picture to ZOOM

.
.
.

WEALTH

see "MONEY" for related links


The secret of great fortunes without
apparent source is a forgotten crime.
--Honorι de Balzac (1799—1850)
French journalist and writer.
Quoted in Fred R. Shapiro (Ed.)
_The Yale Book of Quotations_, p. 42 [2006].

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]

Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light Himself.
It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
--Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)
British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist.
"Lord Finchley" [1911]

Wealth maketh many friends.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 19:4

The man who dies. . . rich, dies disgraced.
--Andrew Carnegie (1835—1919)
American businessman and philanthropist of Scottish birth.
In "North American Review" [June 1889] "Wealth".

We have extravagance and greed, public poverty
and private opulence.
--Cato the Younger (96—46 B.C.)
Roman politician and statesman.
Roman Senate speech. In Sallust (86?-34? B.C.)
_The War With Catiline_, tr. J..C. Rolfe [1921].

The accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the
chief end of existence... So long as wealth is made
the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear
it. ... It is only those who do not understand the
American people who believe that our national life
is entirely absorbed by material motives. We make
no concealment of the fact that we want wealth,
but there are many other things we want much more.
We want peace and honor, and that charity which
is so strong an element in all civilization. The chief
ideal of the American people is idealism. That is the
only motive to which they give any strong and
lasting reaction.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
In his "The chief business of the American people is business" speech.

Abundance is a blessing to the wise;
The use of riches in discretion lies:
Learn this, ye men of wealth — a heavy purse
In a fool's pocket is a heavy curse.
--Richard Cumberland (1631—1718)
English theologian, Anglican bishop, and philosopher of ethics.
Quoted in Richard Alan Krieger
_Civilization's Quotations_ p. 221 [2003].

The minute you walked in the joint,
I could see you were a man of distinction,
A real big spender. . .
Hey! big spender, spend a little time with me.
--Dorothy Fields (1905—1974)
American lyricist.
"Big Spender" [1966 song]

Long Island represents the American's idea of what God
would have done with Nature if he'd had the money.
--Peter Fleming (1907—1971)
English travel writer.
Letter to Rupert Fleming [29 September 1929].

-

The Way to Wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the Way
to Market. It depends chiefly on two Words, Industry and
Frugality; i.e., Waste neither Time nor Money, but make
the best Use of both.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
"Advice to a Young Tradesman" [1748]


He who multiplies Riches, multiplies Cares.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1744]


Who is wise? He that learns from everyone.
Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions.
Who is rich? He that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [July 1755]


Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere
long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Autobiography_ "The Way to Wealth" [1798]

-

-

The greater the wealth, the thicker will be the dirt.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_The Affluent Society_ [1958]


Over the centuries those who have been blessed with
wealth have developed many remarkably ingenious and
persuasive justifications of their good fortune. The instinct
of the liberal is to look at these explanations with a rather
unyielding eye. Yet in this case the facts are inescapable.
It is the increase in output in recent years, not the
redistribution of income, which has brought the greatest
material increase, the well-being of the average man.
And, however suspiciously, the liberal has come to accept
the fact.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_The Affluent Society_ [1958], pp. 96-97

-

Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocracy.
--Sydney J. Harris (1917—1986)
American journalist.
_Pieces of Eight_ [1982]

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.

Away with delay!
The chance of great fortune is short-lived.
--Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (c. 26—102)
Latin epic poet.
In Tom Morris _The Art of Achievement: Mastering the 7 Cs
of Success in Business and Life_ [2002].

A waistcoat of broadcloth or of fustian is alike to an aching
heart, and we laugh no merrier on velvet cushions than we
did on wooden chairs. Often have I sighed in those low-
ceilinged rooms, yet disappointments have come neither
less nor lighter since I quitted them. Life works upon a
compensating balance, and the happiness we gain in one
direction we lose in another. As our means increase, so do
our desires; and we ever stand midway between the two.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
"On Furnished Apartments"

^

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]

^

It is observed of gold, by an old epigrammatist,
'that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it,
to be in sorrow.'
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ # 131 [18 June 1751]
(English twice-weekly journal 1750—1752)

For of those to whom much
is given, much is required.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].

It is wealth to be content.
--Lao-tzu (c. 6th cent. B.C.)
The first philosopher of Chinese Taoism and alleged author of
the _Tao-te Ching_ (Chinese: Classic of the Way of Power).
_The Way of Life_, ch. 33, tr. R. B. Blakney [1955]

Any man who has to ask about the annual
upkeep of a yacht can't afford one.
--attributed to John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837—1913)
American banker, financier, and benefactor of the arts.

-

Wealth, properly employed, is a blessing; and a man may
lawfully endeavor to increase it by honest means.
--Muhammad (A.D. 570?—632)
Prophet to whom the religion of Islam was revealed.
_The Sayings of Muhammad_, 386
tr. Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy [1941]


A man's true wealth is the good he
does in this world.
--Muhammad (A.D. 570?—632)
Prophet to whom the religion of Islam was revealed.

-

Wealth is, for most people, the only honest and
likely path to liberty. With money comes power over
the world. Men are freed from drudgery, women from
exploitation. Businesses can be started, homes built,
communities formed, religions practiced, educations
pursued. But liberals aren't very interested in such
real and material freedoms. They have a more
innocent — not to say toddlerlike — idea of freedom.
Liberals want the freedom to put anything into their
mouths, to say bad words and to expose their
private parts in art museums.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.
_Give War A Chance_ "Introduction" [1992]

Sleep, riches, and health, to be truly
enjoyed, must be interrupted.
--Jean Paul Richter (1763—1825)
German novelist.
_Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces_ , ch. VIII.

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.
--Leo Robin (1900—1984)
American songwriter.
"Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" [1949 song]

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the
harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when
we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into
our own natures.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Speech in Providence, R.I. [23 August 1902].

Which reminds me of the man I read of in some
sacred book who was given a choice of what he
most desired. And because he didn't ask for titles
and honours and dignities, but only for immense
wealth, these other things came to him also.
--Saki [Hector Hugh Munro] (1870—1916)
Scottish writer.
_Reginald at the Theatre_

Only a few held their honor dearer than gold.
--Sallust [Gaius Sallustius Crispus] (c. 86 BC—35/34 BC)
Roman historian.
_The Jugurthine War_ [c. 41-40 B.C.]
(Referring to the corruptibility of Roman upper classes.)

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 keep
absolutely sober.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_Afterthoughts_ [1931] "In the World"

Abundance changes the value of things.
--Terence [Publius Terentius Afer] (c. 190—159 BC)
Roman comic dramatist.

-

A man is rich in proportion to the number of
things which he can afford to let alone.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854] "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"


That man is the richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Journal_ [1906] "11 March 1856"

-

Them as has, gits.
--popular saying

He who loves gold is a fool; he who fears it, is a slave;
he who adores it, is an idolater; he who hoards it up,
a dunce; he who uses it, is the wise man.
--"Old Farmer's Almanac" [1840]

One great and growing sin of a national character is an inordinate
desire to get rich and rich in a hurry. As wealth is the only
aristocracy in America, every man seems bent on attaining to that
important distinction. The "haste to get rich" fosters a speculative
spirit, and men rush hap-hazard into schemes for the sudden
aquisition of wealth. Bubbles are blown, consequently, all around
us. The man who amasses wealth thus suddenly rarely retains it,
while his momentary success lures thousands to the same delusive
pursuits.
--"Scientific American" [June 1850]


TOPICAL

WASHINGTON (AP) - America's richest got richer
between 1992 and 2000, according to an Internal
Revenue Service report released Wednesday.

The adjusted gross income of the country's top 400
taxpayers totaled almost $70 billion in 2000, according
to the IRS, for an average of $173.9 million. The richest
400 in 1992 accumulated just under $19 billion, for an
average of only $46.8 million.

Over the nine-year period, the minimum adjusted gross
income to get on the top 400 list more than tripled,
from $24.4 million to $86.8 million.

In 2000, the 400 paid 22.3 percent of their income to
federal income taxes, down from 26.4 percent in 1992.

The richest 400 made 1.09 percent of U.S. income in
2000, more than double the percentage in 1992, when
they accounted for just 0.52 percent, the IRS said.

On the Net:

Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov

-----

arriviste [a-ree-VEEST], noun:
A person who has recently attained success, wealth, or high
status but not general acceptance or respect; an upstart.
Ex.: He excavates enough dirt that, midway through the book, the reader
loses sympathy with Bernays, who comes across as an insufferable
egotist and insecure, name-dropping arriviste.
Ron Chernow, "First Among Flacks" _New York Times_ [16 August 1998]

commodious [kuh-MOH-dee-us], adjective:
Comfortably or conveniently spacious; roomy; as, a commodious house.

cupidity (noun)
Excessive desire, especially for wealth.

opulent (adj.) ['op-yuh-luh nt]
Characterized by opulence, rich, wealthy; well-supplied.

philistinism (noun)
A desire for wealth and material possessions with
little interest in ethical or spiritual matters.

scion (noun)
A younger member of family: a child or descendant of a
family, especially a rich, famous, or important family.



WEAPONS

.
.

see: "GUNS"
see "WAR & PEACE" for other related links


Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.
--Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)
British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist.
_The Modern Traveller_ [1909].
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 693.
Cohan & Major note:
A succinct verdict by the British writer on the balance
of power between imperialism and its subjects in the
closing decade of this period. The Maxim gun was the
machine-gun invented by the American arms
manufacturer Hiram Maxim in 1883.

The most potent weapon in the hands of
the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
--Steve Biko (1946—1977)
South African anti-apartheid campaigner.
"White Racism and Black Consciousness" (presentation)
Cape Town, South Africa [January 1971]

-

The crossbow is a weapon of the barbarians
[western crusaders], absolutely unknown to the
Greeks. ... this instrument of war ... fires weapons
to an enormous distance ... Arrows of all kinds are
fired. They are very short, but extremely thick with
a heavy iron tip ... [the arrows] transfix a shield,
cut through a heavy iron breastplate and resume
their flight on the far side, so irresistible and violent
is the discharge. An arrow of this type has been
known to make its way right through a bronze statue
... Such is the crossbow, a truly diabolic machine.
The unfortunate man who is struck by it dies without
feeling the blow; however strong the impact he knows
nothing of it.
--Anna Comnena (1083—1153)
Byzantine historian.
_The Alexiad_ [c.1148],
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 213.

& see:

The crossbow had been initially banned by the church
(in 1139), at least in wars between Christians, on the
grounds of its frightfulness. By the I280s, however, it
was becoming increasingly common. It was less
accurate than the longbow, had a slower rate of fire
(one shaft to the longbow's six a minute) and was
much more expensive.
--John Larner
_Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216-1380_ [1980] p. 216.

-

[Dundee is threatened by a mugger with a switchblade]
Charlton: Mick, give him your wallet.
Dundee: What for?
Charlton: He's got a knife.
Dundee: [chuckling] That's not a knife.
Dundee: [Dundee draws a very large Bowie knife]
Dundee: *That's* a knife.
[Dundee slashes the teen mugger's jacket. He and his friends run away]
Dundee: Just kids having fun. You alright?
Charlton: I'm always all right when I'm with you Dundee.
--Dialogue "Crocodile Dundee" [1986 movie]
Screenwriters: John Cornell, Paul Hogan and Ken Shadie.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed. This world
in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its
scientists, the hopes of its children.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].
Speech in Washington [16 April 1953],
in _Public Papers of Presidents_ "1953" [1960] p. 182.

History could hang in the balance tonight.
Give us bombs for peace.
(On the need to maintain military pressure on Serbia.)
--Richard Holbrooke (1941— )
American diplomat.
Telegram to the State Department [summer 1995].

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends
for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our
spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided
men.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
_Strength to Love_, ch. 7 [1963]

For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders
you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things
which a prince must guard against.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.

-

'Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in
the world,' AP photojournalist Eddie Adams once
wrote. A fitting quote for Adams, because his 1968 photograph
of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the
head at point-blank range not only earned him a
Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also went a long way
toward souring Americans' attitudes about the
Vietnam War.

For all the image's political impact, though, the
situation wasn't as black-and-white as it's
rendered. What Adams' photograph doesn't reveal
is that the man being shot was the captain of a
Vietcong "revenge squad" that had executed dozens
of unarmed civilians earlier the same day.

Regardless, it instantly became an icon of the war's
savagery and made the official pulling the trigger —
General Nguyen Ngoc Loan — its iconic villain.
Sadly, the photograph's legacy would haunt Loan
for the rest of his life.

Following the war, he was reviled wherever he went.
After an Australian VA hospital refused to treat
him, he was transferred to the United States, where
he was met with a massive (though unsuccessful)
campaign to deport him.

He eventually settled in Virginia and opened a
restaurant but was forced to close it down as soon
as his past caught up with him. Vandals scrawled
'We know who you are' on his walls, and business
dried up.

Adams felt so bad for Loan that he apologized for
having taken the photo at all, admitting, 'The
general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general
with my camera.'

--Ransom Riggs
_Mental Floss Magazine_ [Jan/Feb 2007],
"13 Photographs That Changed The World: #4: The
Photograph That Ended A War But Ruined A Life"

-

You can't say civilization don't advance, however,
for in every war they kill you in a new way.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.
In "New York Times" [23 December 1929].

Not everyone who carries a long knife is a cook.
--Russian Proverb

When the tongue is the weapon, a man may strike where he cannot
reach; and a word shall do execution both further and deeper than
the mightiest blow.
--Bishop Robert South (1634—1716)
English theologian and author.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" [1854]

-

The Dutch are the most expert Founders in the
World, and furnish most Countries with Ordnance.
The German, Spanish, Italian, African and Turkish
Troops have their arms principally from Amsterdam;
as also their Cannon, Mortars, Powder and Lead.
What is more, during the last two general Wars,
Louis XIV, who thought to carry every Art and
Manufacture to its highest Perfection, and
particularly all that appertained to the Art Military,
was however obliged to the Gunsmiths and Founders
of Amsterdam, the Metropolis of an Enemy, for Arms
and Ammunition for his Troops.
--anon. _A Description of Holland_ [1743],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 385.

While they were waiting at a bus stop in
Cleriston, Mr and Mrs Daniel Thirsty were
threatened by a Mr Robert Clear. 'He
demanded that I give him my wife's purse,'
said Mr Thirsty. 'Telling him that the purse
was in her basket, I bent down, put my hands
up her skirt, detached her artificial leg and hit
him over the head with it. It was not my
intention to do more than frighten him off,
but, unhappily for us, he died.'
--"Evening News" (Edinburgh) [18 August 1978]

-----

cudgel [KUH-juhl], noun:
1. A short heavy stick used as a weapon; a club.
2. To beat with or as if with a cudgel.

nunchaku (noun)
A martial arts weapon consisting of two thick sticks joined
at their ends by a rawhide band, rope, or chain.

petard (noun) [pκ-'tahrd]
1. A military incendiary device for blowing up gates and city walls.
2. A firecracker that explodes with a loud report.




WEASELS

.
.

see "DECEPTION" for related links


I have a plan so cunning you could stick a
tail on it and call it a weasel.
--Rowan Atkinson (1955— )
British comedian and actor.
"Black Adder the Third" [British TV show]

-

Marge, don't discourage the boy. Weaselling out of
things is important to learn. It's what separates
us from the animals ... except the weasel.
--Homer J. Simpson
"The Simpson's"


end page



| UGLY - UNICORNS | UNHAPPINESS | UNIONS - USELESS | VACATION - VENGENCE | VENICE - VICTORY | VIGILANCE - VIRGINITY | VIRTUE - VULGARITY | WAGES - WAR & PEACE | WAR (THE CIVIL) - WAR (THE REVOLUTIONARY) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WAR (VIETNAM) | WAR (WORLD WAR I) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WASHINGTON (D.C.) - WEAK/WEAKNESS | WEALTH - WEASELS | WEATHER - WELLS (H.G.) | WEST (THE OLD/WILD) - WILDE (OSCAR) | WILL - WINNING | WINTER - WISDOM | WISHING - WIVES | WOMEN - WOMEN'S LIB | WOMEN'S RIGHTS - WORDS | WORK - WORLD | WORLD TRADE CENTER & PENTAGON DISASTER, 11 SEPTEMB | WORRY - WRONG | WRITING | YESTERDAY - ZOOS |
| R | S | T | U - END |
| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos |
 
     



Copyright © 2010, someworthwhilequotes.com. All rights reserved.