Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

Affluence means influence.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

Man has the power to act as his own destroyer – and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Money is usually attracted, not pursued.

I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that’s it. The lifestyle doesn’t change.

You don’t need a lot of credentials to be prison guard in a federal prison. And, you know, you give them a set of keys and a weapon, and they’re in power.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

You see the film, you might be entertained, and if it’s not a great film, it loses its power very quickly. I think even simply acceptable books stay with us a lot longer.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

The term ‚globalisation‘ is conventionally used to refer to the specific form of investor-rights integration designed by wealth and power, for their own interests.

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.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.

People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.

Well, I think indigenous peoples have ways of living on the Earth that they’ve had forever. And they’ve been overrun by organized religion, which has had a lot of money and power.

Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.

Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness. But I know I am successful, wealthy, and connected because I am happy.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – the just demands of peace and security will be met – or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

Generous people can become more generous as they become richer, giving away vast fortunes to worthwhile causes as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are doing.

I’m interested in movement, and I’m interested in money, and I’m interested in the movement of money.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

The most obvious characteristic of science is its application: the fact that, as a consequence of science, one has a power to do things. And the effect this power has had need hardly be mentioned. The whole industrial revolution would almost have been impossible without the development of science.

One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.

I could become very rich in Guatemala but by the low method of ratifying my title, opening a clinic, and specialising in allergies. To do that would be the most horrible betrayal of the two ‚I’s‘ struggling inside me: the socialist and the traveller.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

The three most powerful and most apparent means used by Rome to retain her power over the minds of her votaries are Ignorance, Superstition, and Persecution.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

The Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled.

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn’t got any.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.