Debtors Quotes

• The creditor hath a better memory than the debtor.

  James Howell

  Memories, Business, Credit

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• Creditors have better memories than debtors.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Business, Memories, Liberty

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.253

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• A small debt produces a debtor; a large one, an enemy.

  Publilius Syrus

  Enemy, Owing A Debt, Produce

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• A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

  Victor Hugo

  Slave Owners, Dignity, Masters

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• Forgetfulness - a gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Owing A Debt, Forgetful, Gift From God

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.38, Courier Corporation

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• It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Hard Times, Debt Free, Ruined

  "Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes". Book by Rutherford B. Hayes, 1922 - 1926.

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• Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Hard Times, Men, Debt Free

  Diary entry. "Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States". Book edited by Charles Richard Williams, The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, July 13, 1879.

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• Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Ties, Owing A Debt, Financial

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.40, 谷月社

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• I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money. Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Men, Names, People

  "De Senectute (On Old Age)". Book by Marcus Tullius Cicero (Chapter 6, Scene 20), 44 BC.

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• On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.

  Gore Vidal

  United States, Literature, Empires

  Gore Vidal (1992). “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire”

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• That is what has happened to the United States in the international economic scene. We have deteriorated into a debtor status so that we are now dependent upon the kindness of strangers. That is not where the world's leading power should find itself.

  Paul Sarbanes

  Kindness, Aggravation, United States

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• The Bible says forgive your debtors; the world says "sue them for their dough."

  Billy Sunday

  Forgiving, World, Dough

  Billy Sunday, William Thomas Ellis (1917). “Billy Sunday, the Man and His Message: With His Own Words which Have Won Thousands for Christ”

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• Every debt is ultimately paid, if not by the debtor, then eventually by the creditor.

  James Grant

  Creditors, Paid, Ifs

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• Substantive and procedural law benefits and protects landlords over tenants, creditors over debtors, lenders over borrowers, and the poor are seldom among the favored parties.

  John Turner

  Party, Law, Benefits

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• The American taxpayer should not be treated more shabbily than debtors from other nations and we should be encouraging other nations to help rebuild Iraq's economy.

  Hillary Clinton

  Iraq, Helping, Economy

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• As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.

  Samuel Johnson

  Luxury, People, Suffering

  Samuel Johnson (1807). “Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.132

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• Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Creditors, Poor Richard, Frugality

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.253

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• OWE, v. To have (and to hold) a debt. The word formerly signified not indebtedness, but possession; it meant "own," and in the minds of debtors there is still a good deal of confusion between assets and liabilities.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Confusion, Confusing, Mind

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.177, University of Georgia Press

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• DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-driver. As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet Swims round and round his tank to find an outlet, Pressing his nose against the glass that holds him, Nor ever sees the prison that enfolds him; So the poor debtor, seeing naught around him, Yet feels the narrow limits that impound him, Grieves at his debt and studies to evade it, And finds at last he might as well have paid it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Grieving, Glasses, Aquariums

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2379, Delphi Classics

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• Every novel is a debtor to Homer.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fiction, Literature, Novel

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.274, Bantam Classics

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• The borrower is a slave to the lender and the debtor to the creditor.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Business, Slave, Creditors

  Benjamin Franklin, Ormond Seavey (1998). “Autobiography and Other Writings”, p.272, Oxford University Press, USA

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• I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Occupation, Way

  Francis Bacon, John Blackbourne, George Fabyan Collection (Library of Congress) (1730). “Francisci Baconi Baronis de Verulamio ... Opera Omnia Quatuor Voluminibus Comprehensa: Containing, I. Proposition for compiling and amendment of our laws. II. Offer of a digest of the laws. III. Elements, or, Maxims and use of the common law. IV. Cases of treason. V. Four arguments in law ... VI. Draught of an act. VII. Ordinances in chancery. VIII. Reading on the statute of uses. IX. Resuscitatio ... X. Charges. XI. Speeches. XII. Observations on a libel, &c. XIII. Report of Lopez's treason. XI”, p.15

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• There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulant as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Saying Less, Balance, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Give us this day our daily mask.

  Tom Stoppard

  Bible, Prayer, Bread Of Life

  Tom Stoppard (2013). “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”, p.31, Faber & Faber

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• Energetic action on debt would make a radical difference to the prospects of many of the poorest countries in the world, at no practical cost to creditor countries.

  Kenneth Clarke

  Country, Differences, Perspective

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