Rich Man Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old rich man quotes, rich man sayings, and rich man proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor. William Temple
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
The only difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they use their time. Robert Kiyosaki
You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property owns them. Robert Green Ingersoll
We are so vain as to set the highest value upon those things to which nature has assigned the lowest place. What can be more coarse and rude in the mind than the precious metals, or more slavish and dirty than the people that dig and work them? And yet they defile our minds more than our bodies, and make the possessor fouler than the artificer of them. Rich men, in fine, are only the greater slaves. Seneca The Younger
The rich man never really gives anything, he only distributes part of the surplus. It is the person of moderate means who really gives. George Eastman
To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself. Pope Leo XIII
The only difference between a rich man and a poor man, is that the poor man suffers uncomfortably, while the rich man suffers comfortably. Swami Brahmananda
If it's that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn't even have a bribe for the gatekeeper. Reverend Ike
Money alone is only a mean; it presupposes a man to use it. The rich man can go where he pleases, but perhaps please himself nowhere. He can buy a library or visit the whole world, but perhaps has neither patience to read nor intelligence to see.... The purse may be full and the heart empty. He may have gained the world and lost himself; and with all his wealth around him ... he may live as blank a life as any tattered ditcher. Robert Louis Stevenson
I sometimes think that rich men belong to another nationality entirely, no matter what their actual nationality happens to be. The nationality of the rich. William Saroyan
When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level. David Baldacci
A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. Lewis H. Lapham
If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.... Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. Henry David Thoreau
By reason of gifts and bribes the offices be given to rich men, which should rather have been executed by wise men. Thomas More
The dull, purblind folly of the very rich men, their greed and arrogance, and the corruption in business and politics, have tended to produce a very unhealthy condition. Theodore Roosevelt
It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us. Andrew Greeley
For all riches come from iniquity, and unless one were to lose another could not gain. Hence the common adage seems to me to be very true: The rich man is unjust or the heir of an unjust one. St. Jerome
All but the hard hearted man must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it. Gilbert K. Chesterton
For the rich men without scruple drew the estate into their own hands, excluding the rightful heirs from their succession; and all the wealth being centred upon the few, the generality were poor and miserable. Honourable pursuits, for which there was no longer leisure, were neglected; the state was filled with sordid business, and with hatred and envy of the rich. Plutarch
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
Neither a rich man or a poor man gets to enjoy his money. One is too busy trying to hold on to it, and the other is too busy trying to get it. Linda Poindexter
The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. Helen Keller
History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything. Jeffrey Sachs
Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value. Plato
In much of the rest of the world, rich people live in gated communities and drink bottled water. That's increasingly the case in Los Angeles where I come from. So that wealthy people in much of the world are insulated from the consequences of their actions. Jared Diamond
To get rich, one must have but a single idea, one fixed, hard, immutable thought: the desire to make a heap of gold. And in order to increase this heap of gold, one must be inflexible, a usurer, thief, extortionist, and murderer! And one must especially mistreat the small and the weak! And when this mountain of gold has been amassed, one can climb up on it, and from up on the summit, a smile on one’s lips, one can contemplate the valley of poor wretches that one has created Petrus Borel
The rich can afford to be progressive. Poor people have reason to be afraid of the future. Garrison Keillor
With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches. Adam Smith
Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim. Clement Attlee