50 Wise Quotes About Money, Wealth & Finance
Money rules the world and causes more problems than it solves.
Money is something that tends to command and control everything in life. Everyone needs money to survive in one way or another. We work to earn money and spend money to survive. It’s an endless cycle. The pursuit of money can lead to greed and selfishness and honestly tends to be the root of most problems in life, but then ends up being the solution to a lot of it, too.
I often wonder what life would be like if we didn’t have to deal with money and just traded goods like in the old days? Wouldn’t it make things so much simpler? We wouldn’t have to steal and feel like some people are lesser than others. We would all be equals with no homeless people or people who can’t afford health care or food for people in general. Maybe it would work, right? We could dream, anyway.
Whether or not we want it, money is something that needs to be used more wisely and cautiously in life. People use it to get what they want, and often times they don’t care so much about anything else. Money can make people into selfish and greedy humans that only care about themselves. So we have to fix that the best way we can.
Use these money quotes about finance and wealth guide you in the right direction when you're looking to make your own decisions about your finances. Use them as life lessons to help you choose the right path when you're looking for wealth and prosperity.
1. Waste of money.
“Too many people spend money they earned…to buy things they don’t want...to impress people that they don’t like.” — Will Rogers
2. Don't revolve your life around money.
“A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.” — Jonathan Swift
3. Don't be greedy.
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” — Epictetus
4. Very true.
“Money often costs too much.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
5. If only that's how easy it was.
“Every day is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we’ve got 24 hours each.” — Christopher Rice
6. Handle it in the best way possible.
“It’s how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success.” — David Feherty
7. We need to stay frugal to help with everything else.
“Frugality includes all the other virtues.” — Cicero
8. Why waste money like that?
“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powdered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff too.” — Steve Martin
9. The best thing to spend money on.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
10. Greed ruins a lot of stuff.
“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.” — Warren Buffett
11. Money has always been an issue.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty-pound ought and six, result misery.” — Charles Dickens
12. It doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
13. Follow your path.
“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.” — Julia Cameron
14. It's not always promising.
“I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for ten years.” — Warren Buffett
15. Sad, but true.
“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” — Yogi Berra
16. I don't know, it does tend to help sometimes.
“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” — Benjamin Franklin
17. Take care of your money and time.
“Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” — Johann
18. Either way, education is pretty good.
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn
19. Money has a lot of power.
“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” — Ayn Rand
20. Spend money wisely.
“Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you can make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.” — Dave Ramsey
21. Don't be greedy with your cravings.
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” — Seneca
22. True, that feels unfair.
“It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages.” — Henry Ford
23. Don't lose it all.
“He who loses money loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
24. Put in the work.
“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
25. Don't let money rule your life.
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” — Norman Vincent Peale
26. Money is good.
“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” — George Lorimer
27. Money shouldn't be a goal.
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” — Maya Angelou
28. Be successful.
“Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying. That’s not just a catchy slogan. It’s the very essence of successful investing.” — J. Paul Getty
29. Also true.
“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.” — George Bernard Shaw
30. Don't rely on money being your out.
“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” — Henry Ford
31. That's very true...
“How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.” — Robert G. Allen
32. A classic choice.
“I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to wealthy relative right before he died.” — Malcolm Forbes
33. There's a difference.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
34. Scary thought.
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” — Unknown
35. Deep and accurate.
“Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.” — P.T. Barnum
36. Saving is better than spending.
“Try to save something while your salary is small; it’s impossible to save after you begin to earn more.” — Jack Benny
37. Unfortunately.
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” — Henry David Thoreau
38. Act better.
“The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator.” — Ben Graham
39. Luck isn't everything.
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
40. Don't let money control you.
“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” — Dave Ramsey
41. It shouldn't be so enticing.
“Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.” — Paul Samuelson
42. Don't go into debt.
“Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” — Nathan W. Morris
43. Funny how that works out.
“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.” — Zig Ziglar
44. It's a risky business.
“Never spend your money before you have it.” — Thomas Jefferson
45. Funny how that works out.
“The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.” — Phillip Fisher
46. Enjoy it, but don't be greedy.
“Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.” — Benjamin Franklin
47. Work hard and earn your money.
“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.” — Robert Kiyosaki
48. One step closer to the right way.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work — Thomas A. Edison
49. Value your time and talents.
“If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it.” — Kim Garst
50. Education means everything.
“The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind.” — T.T. Munger
Hayley Small is a writer who focuses on pop culture, religion and relationship topics.