Alas! old man, we’re wealthy now, it’s sad beyond a doubt;
We cannot dodge prosperity, success has found us out.
Your eye is very dull and drear, my brow is creased with care,
We realize how hard it is to be a millionaire.
-Robert W. Service (Robert William Service (1874 - 1958)): “Complete Poetical Works of Robert W. Service” (1960), ‘The Joy of Being Poor,’ part 3, lines 1 through 4
“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” -W. C. Fields (pseudonym of William Claude Dukenfield (1880 - 1946))
The Poor
Speak gently, kindly, to the poor;
Let no harsh term be heard;
They have enough they must endure
Without an unkind word.
by David Bates
“Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.” -Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877)
Money is honey, my little sonny,
And a rich man’s joke is always funny.
-Thomas Edward Brown (1830 - 1897)
Overheard: There are advantages to owning no furniture. For example, you can’t fall out of bed if you sleep on the floor.
“There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.” -Wallace D. Wattles (Wallace Delois Wattles (1860 - 1911))
“The best thing you can do for the poor is not to be one of them.” -Frederick Eikerenkoetter
“Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
“If you cannot be satisfied with what you have, you must learn to be satisfied with what you haven’t.” -Caroline Rush: “Further Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa” (1967)
“Upper crust of society: A lot of crumbs held together by dough.” -Author Unknown
“I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his pot every Sunday.” -Henry IV
“The well-fed does not understand the lean.” -Author Unknown: Irish proverb
“If living conditions don’t stop improving in this country, we’re going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men.” -Russell P. Askue
“There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the Summertime and the poor get it in the Winter.” -Bat Masterson (William B. ‘Bat’ Masterson)
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” -Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virginia ‘Virginia’ Woolf (1882 - 1941)): “A Room of One’s Own” (1929)
There’s many a thing which they
Whose coats are tattered never dare to say.
-Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (about C.E. 55 - C.E. 130))
“Human prosperity never rests but always craves more, till blown up with pride, it totters and falls. From the opulent mansions pointed at by all passers-by none warns it away, none cries, ‘Let no more riches enter!’” -Aeschylus (about 525 B.C.E. - about 456 B.C.E.)
“The most inconvenient feature about poverty is that one is apt to get used to it.” -Author Unknown
Your country clubs, the cars, the boats -
Your assets may be ample,
But the best inheritance
You can leave your kids
Is to be a good example.
-Barry Spilchuk
“The story of his youth was a series of bitternesses, as is the case with almost all distinguished men. Poverty sits by their cradle, and keeps watch over them till they have grown up; and this lean nurse remains their true companion through life.” -Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
“The poor are rightfully the property of the rich, because the rich made them so.” -Author Unknown
“You can’t get rid of poverty by giving people money.” -P. J. O’Rourke (Patrick Jake O’Rourke (born 1947))
“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.” -Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger (3 B.C.E. - C.E. 65))
“The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.” -Willem de Kooning
“It is true that you cannot take it with you, but folks ought to remember that how you got it may determine where you go.” -Author Unknown
“The poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take their pleasure raw; they haven’t the time to cook it.” -W. B. Yeats (William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)): “Where There Is Nothing” (1903)
“Being in poverty is like being a crab in a bucket full of crabs. Whenever a crab tries to crawl out of the bucket to freedom, the other crabs grab onto it and pull it back down into the bucket. It is a strange and evil thing: Not only do the poor adamantly refuse to give up the destructive habits that keep them poor, but they also fight viciously to keep themselves and everyone around them forever poor.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” -Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919)
Peniaphobia is a persistent fear of poverty. Plutophobia is a persistent fear of wealth. Perhaps the solution would be to position oneself comfortably between the two, in the place called ‘the middle class.’
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” -James Baldwin (1924 - 1987): “Nobody Knows My Name” (1961)
“Prosperity: Something that labor creates and for which politicians get all the credit.” -Author Unknown
“It is the weariness of the poor that keeps the rich in power.” -Author Unknown
“If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money cannot buy.” -Author Unknown
“When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him, ‘Whose?’” - Don Marquis (Donald Robert Perry ‘Don’ Marquis (1878 - 1937))
“No matter how little money or how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.” -Louis Sabin
“When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.” -Confucius (also known as K’ung Fu-tzu or K’ung Tzu or K’ung Fu-tse or K’ung Ch’iu (about 551 B.C.E. - about 479 B.C.E.))
“Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.” -Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774)
Mack: I started out in life with just a penny in my pocket.
Jack: I started out in life without even a pocket.
“There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.” -Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900))
Overheard: Forget about being a millionaire - I just want to be a hundredaire!
“Poverty is feeling poor.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
“The philosophy of the rich and the poor is this: The rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.” -Robert T. Kiyosaki (Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born 1947))
“Gabe was so poor that all he had to wear as a boy were hand-me-downs. The real shame was that he had five older sisters and no brothers.” -Author Unknown
“Appreciation of beauty by the poor is an infringement upon the exclusive rights of the rich.” -Author Unknown
You Might Be Poor If . . .
- The last time you bought anything new was . . . it has been so long that you cannot remember with certainty.
- Savings sounds like a great idea and you hope to have some someday.
- You cannot remember when times were not hard and money was not scarce.
- You have only enough to survive.
- You avoid certain places and people or hang your head in shame in their presence.
- You feel like the gulf between poverty and prosperity cannot be bridged.
“Come away; poverty’s catching.” -Aphra Behn (1640 - 1689)
Seldom do people discern
Eloquence under a threadbare cloak.
-Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (about C.E. 55 - C.E. 130))
“The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.” -Author Unknown
“It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.” -Burton Hillis (pseudonym of William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
“Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving.” -O. Henry (William Sydney Porter (1862 - 1910)): “Heart of the West” (1907)
“For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.” -John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002)
“The rich are very clever; they have even figured out ways to make money off other people’s poverty.” -Author Unknown
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people He gave it to.” -Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)
“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.” -Harry Kemp
“No one can earn a million dollars honestly.” -William Jennings Bryan (1860 - 1925)
“Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree while the other is in distress try whether one side of his face can smile while the other is pinched.” -Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)
“A man may live upon little, but he cannot live upon nothing.” -Author Unknown
“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): letter (7 December 1782) to James Boswell
“The prosperous man is never sure that he is loved for himself.” -F. L. Lucas (Frank Laurence Lucas (1894 - 1967))
“He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.” -Bion (about 325 B.C.E. - about 255 B.C.E.)
“The more is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.” -Leo Tolstoy (Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)): “Help for the Starving” (1892)
“Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.” -Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. It’s only empty heads and empty hearts that do it.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993): “Enthusiasm Makes the Difference” (1985)
“Poor people have big television. Rich people have big library.” -Jim Rohn (Emanuel James ‘Jim’ Rohn (1930 - 2009))
“The gust of wind that blows out the candle fans the fire; so, too, the winds of fortune that crush the poor man make the rich man prosper.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.” -Jean de La Bruyère (1645 - 1696): as attributed in “The London Magazine” (December 1827)
Why are the needy only thought of around the holidays? Are they not just as needy throughout the rest of the year? The answer is that charities for the poor are run by rich people, and rich people need more money during the holidays to pay for all their celebrating, so they raise money during this time, keeping most of it for themselves and giving a pittance to the poor. After all, the rich are needier of joy than the poor are.
Rich man: One who is not ashamed to ask the clerk to show him something cheaper or to haggle over the price.
“I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.” -Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (born 1933))
“Poverty: Something that money cannot buy.” -Author Unknown
“The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.” -J. H. Jowett (John Henry Jowett)
“Poor people are rich in excuses, rich people are poor in excuses.” -Author Unknown
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” -Teresa of Calcutta (1910 - 1997)
“It is easy enough for the poor to criticize the rich and for the rich to criticize the poor, but how often do we hear of the rich and the poor getting together, talking to each other, and getting to know each other well enough to be certain that the criticisms are valid?” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.” -Author Unknown
“The strongest single factor in prosperity consciousness is self-esteem: believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it.” -Jerry Gillies
“Money polishes the poor, but with a very dull finish.” -Author Unknown
“The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity.” -Alan Gregg
“Poverty: A state of mind; also, a bad habit.” -Author Unknown
“Creation of wealth is almost a duty because of the widespread benefits that flow from it.” -John Gunn
Overheard: Some people are so poor that all they have is money.
“Rich: A word for describing someone who make use of the opportunities that poor people ignore or carelessly throw away.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.” -Democritus (about 460 B.C.E. - 370 B.C.E.)
“I might have been born in a hovel but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars.” -Jacqueline Cochran (born Bessie Lee Pittman (1906 - 1980))
“The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early Spring.” -Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 - 1904)
No matter what your income level or property value, determine to live richly . . . and always to Make Fun Of Life!
We cannot dodge prosperity, success has found us out.
Your eye is very dull and drear, my brow is creased with care,
We realize how hard it is to be a millionaire.
-Robert W. Service (Robert William Service (1874 - 1958)): “Complete Poetical Works of Robert W. Service” (1960), ‘The Joy of Being Poor,’ part 3, lines 1 through 4
“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” -W. C. Fields (pseudonym of William Claude Dukenfield (1880 - 1946))
The Poor
Speak gently, kindly, to the poor;
Let no harsh term be heard;
They have enough they must endure
Without an unkind word.
by David Bates
“Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.” -Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877)
Money is honey, my little sonny,
And a rich man’s joke is always funny.
-Thomas Edward Brown (1830 - 1897)
Overheard: There are advantages to owning no furniture. For example, you can’t fall out of bed if you sleep on the floor.
“There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.” -Wallace D. Wattles (Wallace Delois Wattles (1860 - 1911))
“The best thing you can do for the poor is not to be one of them.” -Frederick Eikerenkoetter
“Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
“If you cannot be satisfied with what you have, you must learn to be satisfied with what you haven’t.” -Caroline Rush: “Further Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa” (1967)
“Upper crust of society: A lot of crumbs held together by dough.” -Author Unknown
“I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his pot every Sunday.” -Henry IV
“The well-fed does not understand the lean.” -Author Unknown: Irish proverb
“If living conditions don’t stop improving in this country, we’re going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men.” -Russell P. Askue
“There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the Summertime and the poor get it in the Winter.” -Bat Masterson (William B. ‘Bat’ Masterson)
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” -Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virginia ‘Virginia’ Woolf (1882 - 1941)): “A Room of One’s Own” (1929)
There’s many a thing which they
Whose coats are tattered never dare to say.
-Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (about C.E. 55 - C.E. 130))
“Human prosperity never rests but always craves more, till blown up with pride, it totters and falls. From the opulent mansions pointed at by all passers-by none warns it away, none cries, ‘Let no more riches enter!’” -Aeschylus (about 525 B.C.E. - about 456 B.C.E.)
“The most inconvenient feature about poverty is that one is apt to get used to it.” -Author Unknown
Your country clubs, the cars, the boats -
Your assets may be ample,
But the best inheritance
You can leave your kids
Is to be a good example.
-Barry Spilchuk
“The story of his youth was a series of bitternesses, as is the case with almost all distinguished men. Poverty sits by their cradle, and keeps watch over them till they have grown up; and this lean nurse remains their true companion through life.” -Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
“The poor are rightfully the property of the rich, because the rich made them so.” -Author Unknown
“You can’t get rid of poverty by giving people money.” -P. J. O’Rourke (Patrick Jake O’Rourke (born 1947))
“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.” -Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger (3 B.C.E. - C.E. 65))
“The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.” -Willem de Kooning
“It is true that you cannot take it with you, but folks ought to remember that how you got it may determine where you go.” -Author Unknown
“The poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take their pleasure raw; they haven’t the time to cook it.” -W. B. Yeats (William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)): “Where There Is Nothing” (1903)
“Being in poverty is like being a crab in a bucket full of crabs. Whenever a crab tries to crawl out of the bucket to freedom, the other crabs grab onto it and pull it back down into the bucket. It is a strange and evil thing: Not only do the poor adamantly refuse to give up the destructive habits that keep them poor, but they also fight viciously to keep themselves and everyone around them forever poor.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” -Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919)
Peniaphobia is a persistent fear of poverty. Plutophobia is a persistent fear of wealth. Perhaps the solution would be to position oneself comfortably between the two, in the place called ‘the middle class.’
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” -James Baldwin (1924 - 1987): “Nobody Knows My Name” (1961)
“Prosperity: Something that labor creates and for which politicians get all the credit.” -Author Unknown
“It is the weariness of the poor that keeps the rich in power.” -Author Unknown
“If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money cannot buy.” -Author Unknown
“When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him, ‘Whose?’” - Don Marquis (Donald Robert Perry ‘Don’ Marquis (1878 - 1937))
“No matter how little money or how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.” -Louis Sabin
“When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.” -Confucius (also known as K’ung Fu-tzu or K’ung Tzu or K’ung Fu-tse or K’ung Ch’iu (about 551 B.C.E. - about 479 B.C.E.))
“Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.” -Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774)
Mack: I started out in life with just a penny in my pocket.
Jack: I started out in life without even a pocket.
“There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.” -Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900))
Overheard: Forget about being a millionaire - I just want to be a hundredaire!
“Poverty is feeling poor.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
“The philosophy of the rich and the poor is this: The rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.” -Robert T. Kiyosaki (Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born 1947))
“Gabe was so poor that all he had to wear as a boy were hand-me-downs. The real shame was that he had five older sisters and no brothers.” -Author Unknown
“Appreciation of beauty by the poor is an infringement upon the exclusive rights of the rich.” -Author Unknown
You Might Be Poor If . . .
- The last time you bought anything new was . . . it has been so long that you cannot remember with certainty.
- Savings sounds like a great idea and you hope to have some someday.
- You cannot remember when times were not hard and money was not scarce.
- You have only enough to survive.
- You avoid certain places and people or hang your head in shame in their presence.
- You feel like the gulf between poverty and prosperity cannot be bridged.
“Come away; poverty’s catching.” -Aphra Behn (1640 - 1689)
Seldom do people discern
Eloquence under a threadbare cloak.
-Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (about C.E. 55 - C.E. 130))
“The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.” -Author Unknown
“It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.” -Burton Hillis (pseudonym of William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
“Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving.” -O. Henry (William Sydney Porter (1862 - 1910)): “Heart of the West” (1907)
“For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.” -John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002)
“The rich are very clever; they have even figured out ways to make money off other people’s poverty.” -Author Unknown
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people He gave it to.” -Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)
“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.” -Harry Kemp
“No one can earn a million dollars honestly.” -William Jennings Bryan (1860 - 1925)
“Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree while the other is in distress try whether one side of his face can smile while the other is pinched.” -Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)
“A man may live upon little, but he cannot live upon nothing.” -Author Unknown
“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): letter (7 December 1782) to James Boswell
“The prosperous man is never sure that he is loved for himself.” -F. L. Lucas (Frank Laurence Lucas (1894 - 1967))
“He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.” -Bion (about 325 B.C.E. - about 255 B.C.E.)
“The more is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.” -Leo Tolstoy (Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)): “Help for the Starving” (1892)
“Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.” -Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. It’s only empty heads and empty hearts that do it.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993): “Enthusiasm Makes the Difference” (1985)
“Poor people have big television. Rich people have big library.” -Jim Rohn (Emanuel James ‘Jim’ Rohn (1930 - 2009))
“The gust of wind that blows out the candle fans the fire; so, too, the winds of fortune that crush the poor man make the rich man prosper.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.” -Jean de La Bruyère (1645 - 1696): as attributed in “The London Magazine” (December 1827)
Why are the needy only thought of around the holidays? Are they not just as needy throughout the rest of the year? The answer is that charities for the poor are run by rich people, and rich people need more money during the holidays to pay for all their celebrating, so they raise money during this time, keeping most of it for themselves and giving a pittance to the poor. After all, the rich are needier of joy than the poor are.
Rich man: One who is not ashamed to ask the clerk to show him something cheaper or to haggle over the price.
“I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.” -Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (born 1933))
“Poverty: Something that money cannot buy.” -Author Unknown
“The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.” -J. H. Jowett (John Henry Jowett)
“Poor people are rich in excuses, rich people are poor in excuses.” -Author Unknown
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” -Teresa of Calcutta (1910 - 1997)
“It is easy enough for the poor to criticize the rich and for the rich to criticize the poor, but how often do we hear of the rich and the poor getting together, talking to each other, and getting to know each other well enough to be certain that the criticisms are valid?” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.” -Author Unknown
“The strongest single factor in prosperity consciousness is self-esteem: believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it.” -Jerry Gillies
“Money polishes the poor, but with a very dull finish.” -Author Unknown
“The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity.” -Alan Gregg
“Poverty: A state of mind; also, a bad habit.” -Author Unknown
“Creation of wealth is almost a duty because of the widespread benefits that flow from it.” -John Gunn
Overheard: Some people are so poor that all they have is money.
“Rich: A word for describing someone who make use of the opportunities that poor people ignore or carelessly throw away.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.” -Democritus (about 460 B.C.E. - 370 B.C.E.)
“I might have been born in a hovel but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars.” -Jacqueline Cochran (born Bessie Lee Pittman (1906 - 1980))
“The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early Spring.” -Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 - 1904)
No matter what your income level or property value, determine to live richly . . . and always to Make Fun Of Life!
