Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Moneymaking was never anything to me. I was happy never making money; I just was happy doing things I liked. But I fell into the money thing. I now don't feel guilty about it, but I am determined to give away the bulk of it and enjoy doing it.

Donate and do not talk about it, they say you do nothing for the society; do and talk about it, they say you seek publicity!

I feel incredibly successful. I make a living as a writer and am able to help support a big family, my church, my bleeding-heart causes.

Making money is a happiness. And that's a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.

I have enjoyed the personal use of money; but I have gotten the greatest satisfaction from using it to advance my beliefs in human relations, human values.

I believe in two things: One, Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.' And someone once said, 'He who gives while he lives also knows where it goes.'

To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind.

As I see it, most major philanthropists have been bullied into giving. They feel social pressure to give. It has become a cost of doing business.

Other people might have family - three kids or five houses. In my case, that doesn't exist. I'm going to give everything away. Everything has been transferred to charitable trusts. There is no question about that. The question is where, not if.

Over a three year period, I gave away half of what I had. To be honest, my hands shook as I signed it away. I knew I was taking myself out of the race to be the richest man in the world.

Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.

I think it is what you do with your wealth that is important. I don't believe in accumulating money for money's sake. It's one of the reasons I want to do more about helping women.

In Russia, or anywhere, people don't like rich people. Yeah, OK, I have money, but the question is how I use it. It's not easy, believe me; it's not easy.

I'm going to give all my money away, eventually. I don't believe in all this hand-down stuff. Even if I had kids, I don't think I'd want to give them everything.

If we'd have said we were not upset, they would have thought we were so rich it meant nothing to us, and if we say we're upset about it, they'll say money is all we care about.

A rich man can afford to be generous to many.

I don't believe in men waiting until they are ready to die before using any of their money for helpful purposes.

I'd much rather leave £2bn to charity, or £3bn or £4bn, than £1bn. That is my motivation to carry on working as hard as I do.

If I died tomorrow, I would regret growing so wealthy and still running the business when there are so many more people I could have helped.

You know, I'm not gonna take my money with me to heaven or hell, wherever I'm going. So I want to do something good with it even though my means are very limited. I'm no millionaire!

It does not matter how much we donate; it matters whether the donation is meaningful. How to define meaningful? Let society and history judge.

I have a policy that I get to spend as much on myself as I give away.

If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

There are so many different kinds of motivation for investing or giving or parting with your money in whatever other way, and plain old financial return is obviously attractive. But people are not always rational and are not just looking for that.

At the beginning, you are 20 and you can just imagine... don't get me wrong, but having money. Then you realise that it's not only about you and what you are doing but that you have to give back.