Covetousness Quotes - Page 2

• Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.

  Epictetus

  Taken, Roots, Coward

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• Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.

  Samuel Johnson

  Curiosity, Desire, Demand

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• To the covetous man life is a nightmare, and God lets him wrestle with it as best he may.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, May, Nightmare

  Henry Ward Beecher (1871). “Lectures to young men, on various important subjects”, p.87

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• There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth ... lust. When he is strong ... quarrelsomeness. When he is old ... covetousness.

  Confucius

  Strong, Men, Lust

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• The avenues in my neighborhood are Pride, Covetousness and Lust; the cross streets are Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth. I live over on Sloth, and the style on our street is to avoid the other thoroughfares.

  John Chancellor

  Anger, Pride, Envy

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• I have heard thousands of confessions, but never one of covetousness.

  Francis Xavier

  Confession, Heard

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• Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Moving, Devil, Vices

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.

  Francis Bacon

  Masters, Servant, Ifs

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• If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Integrity, Offending

  William Shakespeare, Oliver William Bourn Peabody, John Payne Collier, Samuel Weller Singer, Charles Symmons (1839). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: Henry IV, pt. 2. Henry V. Henry VI, pts. 1-3”, p.189

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• When the Forbidden Fruit was handed to Adam and Eve, they were allowed the moral choice to accept or decline. I know people who have refused to feast on the money tree. They live simply, within their means, and seem far more content than those who are trying to horde their wealth while clinging to the ladder of 'success,' terrified to let go. That isn't real living. The Puritans rightly saw that as covetousness.

  Cal Thomas

  Letting Go, Real, Mean

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• Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.

  Christopher Marlowe

  Excess, Causes, Wealth

  Christopher Marlowe, Stephen J. Lynch (2009). “The Jew of Malta”, p.14, Hackett Publishing

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• Covetousness is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Anxiety, Solicitude

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1809). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.373

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• Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.

  John Milton

  Men, Jewels, Treasure

  John Milton (1855). “The first four books of Milton's Paradise lost; with notes, by C.W. Connon”, p.101

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• By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if me my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.

  William Shakespeare

  Offending, Soul, Honor

  William Shakespeare (1797). “Works, containing his plays and poems: to which is added a glossary”, p.543

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• Form no covetous desire, so that the demon of greediness may not deceive thee, and the treasure of the world may not be tasteless to thee.

  Zoroaster

  Desire, World, Treasure

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• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

  Michael Douglas

  Movie, Great Year, Greed

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• The covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty, and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift, to be as poor and miserable with a great estate, as any man can be without it.

  John Tillotson

  Men, Riches, Miserable

  John Tillotson (1699). “The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions : Together with the Rule of Faith : Being All that Were Published by His Grace Himself and Now Collected Into One Volume : to which is Added, an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters”, p.338

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• He who fears death has already lost the life he covets.

  Cato the Elder

  Fear Of Death, Lost

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• Covetousness bursts the sack and spills the grain.

  Walter Scott

  Grain, Spills

  Walter Scott (1824). “The Works of Walter Scott, Esq”, p.69

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• The evils of the body are murder, theft, and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse and idle talk; of the mind, covetousness, hatred and error.

  Gautama Buddha

  Lying, Errors, Evil

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• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.

  Oliver Stone

  Movie, Great Year, Greed

  "Wall Street". www.imdb.com. 1987.

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• When workmen strive to do better than well, they do confound their skill in covetousness.

  William Shakespeare

  Skills, Excellence, Strive

  William Shakespeare (1790). “The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustr. of various commentators; to which are added An essay on the chronological order of his plays; an essay relative to Shakspeare and Jonson; a dissertation on the three parts of King Henry vi; an historical account of the English stage; and notes. By E. Malone. 10 vols. [in 11 pt.].”, p.529

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• There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

  Chanakya

  Integrity, Mind, Contentment

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• As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.

  Daniel Defoe

  Roots, Evil, Poverty

  'Moll Flanders' (1721)

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• True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves.

  John Milton

  Modesty, Rich

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