Covetousness Quotes

• I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

  Ayn Rand

  Brother, Men, Soul

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.47, Xist Publishing

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• If we are to say no to covetousness, we must learn to say yes to contentment. This involves learning to be content with what we have (Hebrews 13:5). Much of our discontentment may be traced to expectations that are essentially selfish and more often than not completely unrealistic.

  Alistair Begg

  Selfish, Expectations, Contentment

  Alistair Begg (2004). “Pathway to Freedom: How God's Law Guides Our Lives”, p.215, Moody Publishers

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• There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual. ...Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

  Mark Twain

  Spiritual, Greed, Want

  Mark Twain (1973). “What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings”, p.202, Univ of California Press

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• Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

  William Penn

  Roots, Evil, Monsters

  William Penn (1839). “Fruits of solitude ... New edition”, p.23

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• Covetousness is the greatest misfortune. One who does not know what is enough will never have enough.

  Laozi

  Doe, Enough, Knows

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• The covetous man feareth not God. This also is plain from the word because it setteth covetousness and the fear of God in direct opposition. Men that fear God are said to hate covetousness, Exod. xviii. 21. Besides the covetous man is called an idolater and is said to have no part in the kingdom of Christ and of God, Col. iii. 5. And again; 'The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth,' Psa. x. 3.

  John Bunyan

  Hate, Heart, Men

  John Bunyan (1851). “Christian Behaviour: A Holy Life, the Beauty of Christianity, the Fear of God, and an Exhortation to Unity and Peace to which is Added a Caution Against Sin”, p.322

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• It was with good reason that God commanded through Moses that the vineyard and harvest were not to be gleaned to the last grape or grain; but something to be left for the poor. For covetousness is never to be satisfied; the more it has, the more it wants. Such insatiable ones injure themselves, and transform God's blessings into evil.

  Martin Luther

  Blessing, Evil, Vineyards

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• Covetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honor, and feeding on selfishness.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Honor, Selfishness, Feeding

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• If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

  Francis Bacon

  Money, Men, Greed

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• The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world.

  Robert South

  World, Made, Persons

  Robert South (1827). “Discourses on Various Subjects and Occasions: Selected from the Complete English Edition. With a Sketch of His Life and Character”, p.413

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• I think if the church put in half the time on covetousness that it does on lust, this would be a better world for all of us.

  Garrison Keillor

  Thinking, Lust, Church

  Garrison Keillor (1990). “Lake Wobegon Days”, p.108, Penguin

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• The curse of covetousness is that it destroys manhood by substituting money for character.

  Lucy Larcom

  Character, Curse, Manhood

  Lucy Larcom (1892). “The Unseen Friend”

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• When there is firm conquest over covetousness, they who have conquered it wake up to the how and why of life.

  Patanjali

  Money, Greed, Wake Up

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• The covetous person is full of fear; and he or she who lives in fear will ever be a slave.

  Horace

  Slave, Be A Slave, Persons

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• The pleasures of sin exist. We cannot deny them. But we also dare not deny what follows in their wake: a voracious appetite, inflamed with eroticism, demanding more indulgence more often until a degenerative spiral captures the soul and drags us on a never ending descent into deeper patterns of immorality and illicit behaviour... Lust goes beyond the sexual. Lust can show itself in a variety of forms: covetousness, gluttony, drunkeness, power hunger, or unbridled ambition, to name a few

  Edwin Louis Cole

  Ambition, Names, Soul

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• Covetousness, like a candle ill made, smothers the splendor of a happy fortune in its own grease.

  Frances Osborne

  Grease, Splendor, Made

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• All the wants which disturb human life, which make us uneasy to ourselves, quarrelsome with others, and unthankful to God, which weary us in vain labors and foolish anxieties, which carry us from project to project, from place to place in a poor pursuit of we don't know what, are the wants which neither God, nor nature, nor reason hath subjected us to, but are solely infused into us by pride, envy, ambition, and covetousness.

  William Law

  Ambition, Pride, Envy

  William Law, P. G. Stanwood (1978). “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life ; The Spirit of Love”, p.153, Paulist Press

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• The Word says, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world’ (1 John 2:15). Jesus warned, ‘Beware of covetousness: for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses’ (Luke 12:15). Things—our possessions—can tie us down to this world. While heaven and hell prepare for war, we go shopping. Eternal values are at stake! The end of all we know is near—and we are busy playing with our toys!

  David Wilkerson

  Jesus, War, Men

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• But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

  Paul the Apostle

  Talking, Giving, Saint

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• It isn't sex by itself that makes abortion. It is sex plus covetousness: desiring things that God does not will for us to have because we are not willing to find our satisfaction in him. Illicit sex and unencumbered freedom without children: for these we covet, and abortion is the result.

  John Piper

  Sex, Children, Abortion

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• Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague...Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead...Let every head of household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let us again clothe ourselves with these proved and sterling virtues-honesty, truthfulness, chastity, sobriety, temperance, industry, and thrift; let us discard all covetousness and greed.

  J. Reuben Clark

  Religious, Honesty, Home

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• One be covetous when he has little, much or anything between, for covetousness comes from the heart, not from the circumstances of life.

  Charles Caldwell Ryrie

  Inspirational Life, Heart, Littles

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• Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.

  William Shakespeare

  Desire, Sin

  William Shakespeare (1752). “The Works of Shakespeare”, p.166

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• I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that ... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature.

  Abraham Cowley

  Life, Nature, Strong

  Abraham Cowley, Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Poems of Abraham Cowley”, p.152

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• Being delivered from bodily sins is not enough; we must also cleanse the inner energy which dwells in our soul. For out of our hearts 'proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness' (Mk. 7:21) and so on ? these are what motivate people.

  Gregory Palamas

  Christian, Heart, People

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Christopher Veniamin, Monastery of St. John the Baptist (Essex, England) (2009). “The homilies”, Mount Thabor Pub

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