Greed Quotes - Page 32

• To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means the freedom to rob others without interruption. To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth without being compelled to interrupt their pleasures to feed those whom their greed is starving. And to practically everybody peace simply means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their animal appetites for comfort and pleasure.

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, Men, Animal

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.122, New Directions Publishing

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• The thing that bothers me the most is the recklessness and greed of the local ranchers, who run too many cattle back here, choking with waste the creek that runs through my property. There's certain times of day that the cowboys like to send them turds down the river. Them f**kers piss me off. if you gotta mess up the ecology of the world in order to raise a bunch of cows, well eat somethin else. I'm not a fan of the cowboys.

  Merle Haggard

  Running, Cowboy, Order

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• For what will it profit men that a more prudent distribution and use of riches make it possible for them to gain even the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their own souls? What will it profit to teach them sound principles in economics, if they permit themselves to be so swept away by selfishness, by unbridled and sordid greed, that hearing the commandments of the Lord, they do all things contrary.

  Pope Pius XI

  Loss, Men, Soul

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI)., Pope Pius XI. (1931). “On Social Reconstruction: Encyclical Letter”

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• I have the strong suspicion that when the brain's greed system is in operation, those parts of the brain that regulate ethical conduct are de-activated. Perhaps the greater the amount of money to be made, the greater the deactivation of the system that regulates ethical behaviour.

  Semir Zeki

  Strong, Brain, Behaviour

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• Some men think that the globe is a sponge that God puts into their hands to squeeze for their own garden or flower-pot.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Flower, Men, Garden

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.117

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• He was seized and dragged off to King Philip, and being asked who he was, replied, "A spy upon your insatiable greed."

  Diogenes

  Kings, Spy, Insatiable

  "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6: The Cynics". Book by Diogenes Laërtius translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925.

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• This was 1990, the year that communism died in Europe and it seemed strange to me that in all the words that were written about the fall of the iron curtain, nobody anywhere lamented that it was the end of a noble experiment. I know that communism never worked and I would have disliked living under it myself but none the less it seems that there was a kind of sadness in the thought that the only economic system that appeared to work was one based on self interest and greed.

  Bill Bryson

  Fall, Sadness, Self

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• Greed is merely a species of nearsightedness.

  Henry Ford

  Species

  Henry Ford (2015). “My Life and Work: Top Biography”, p.14, 谷月社

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• If the heart is fed by love, the greed for pleasure would disappear.

  Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya

  Heart, Pleasure, Disappear

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• How can I be secure? Through amassing wealth beyond all measure? No. And what's beyond measure? That's a sickness. That's a trap. There is no measure. Only greed.

  David Mamet

  Wealth, Sickness, Traps

  David Mamet (2014). “Glengarry Glen Ross”, p.28, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Greed puts out the sun.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Sun

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2001). “The Other Wind”, p.241, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Religion as a vital issue is dead except on paper, and whatever beauty-baiting the future may witness will be the work of greed and trade, and not of honest cosmos-facing.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Issues, Cosmos, Paper

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• Instead of indulging in jealousy, greed, in relishing themselves, there are men who keep their hearts alert to the stillness in which time rolls on and leaves us behind. ... those who are open to the wonder will not miss it. Faith is found in solicitude for faith, in an inner care for the wonder that is everywhere.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Heart, Men, Missing

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.331, Macmillan

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• A child in its greed for love does not enjoy having to share the affection of its parents with its brothers and sisters; and it notices that the whole of their affection is lavished upon it once more whenever it arouses their anxiety by falling ill. It has now discovered a means of enticing out its parents' love and will make use of that means as soon as it has the necessary psychical material at its disposal for producing an illness.

  Sigmund Freud

  Brother, Children, Fall

  Sigmund Freud (1997). “Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

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• If you ask for too much, you lose even that which you have.

  Isaac Asimov

  Too Much, Asks, Ifs

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• Now, you see, if you understand what I'm saying, with your intelligence, and then take the next step and say "But I understood it now, but I didn't feel it." Then, next I raise the question: Why do you want to feel it? You say: "I want something more", because that's again that spiritual greed. And you could only say that because you didn't understand it.

  Alan Watts

  Spiritual, Want Something, Next Steps

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• What the eye delights in, no longer dictates My greed to enjoy: boys, grass, the fenced-off deer. It leaves those figures that distantly play On the horizon's rim: they sign their peace, in games.

  Stephen Spender

  Eye, Boys, Games

  Stephen Spender (2015). “New Collected Poems of Stephen Spender”, p.135, Faber & Faber

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• In this world laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out in life on the basis of the common greed. In this world irrationality clings to man like his shadow so that the right things get done for the wrong reasons - afterwards, we dredge up the right reasons for justification. It is a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our enemies always immoral; a world where "reconciliation" means that when one side gets the power and the other side gets reconciled to it.

  Saul Alinsky

  Mean, Angel, Men

  "Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals". Book by Saul Alinsky, p. 13, archive.org. 1971.

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• People sometimes rationalize their greed by saying that it is all for the good of their children but this is nothing but an excuse they use to make their despicable actions appear respectable and praiseworthy.

  Democritus

  Children, Hypocrisy, People

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• I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.

  Howard Zinn

  Powerful, Ideas, Roots

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• Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed in certain ways, neutrality means accepting the way things are now. It is a world of clashing interests – war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism – and it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Moving, Mean

  Howard Zinn (2009). “Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice”, p.7, Harper Collins

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• Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable. For punishment when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment; while punishment, when ill-awarded under the influence of greed and anger or owing to ignorance, excites fury even among hermits and ascetics dwelling in forests, not to speak of householders.

  Chanakya

  Ignorance, Punishment, Dwelling

  "Arthashastra". Book by Chanakya, Translated by R. Shamasastry. Bangalore: Government Press, Book I: "Concerning Discipline", Chapter 4 "Determination of the Place of Varta and of Dandaniti", 1915.

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• Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated - unfairly so, in my opinion.

  Conrad Black

  Opinion, Has Beens, Underestimated

  "The World According to Conrad Black". www.thestar.com. March 11, 2007.

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• At this season of the year we draw close to Good Friday. All the eyes of the world will turn back to "a green hill far away, without a city wall," where the founder of Christianity was crucified by those forces of selfishness, greed, and lust for gain that are still at work in the world. It seems to me that unless we do something in Canada about the question of the export of war materials there will be another crucifixion - the crucifixion of a generation of young men, crucified upon a cross of nickel.

  Tommy Douglas

  Friday, Wall, War

  Tommy Douglas' remarks during a debate at the House of Commons in Ottawa, Ontario, April 3, 1939.

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• Most wars are fought for greed, but we are luckier here we fight for our lives and the lives of the people we love.

  David Gemmell

  War, Fighting, People

  "The King Beyond the Gate". Book by David Gemmell, Ch. 9, 1985.

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