Alexander Smith Quotes

Money can be taken away from you, by the IRS or by pistol. That's why I always measure riches in terms of wisdom. No one can ever take from you what you know.

I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

When Honor's sun declines, and Wealth takes wings, Then Learning shines, the best of precious things.

They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind.

A wise man poor Is like a sacred book that ’s never read,— To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead. This age thinks better of a gilded fool Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom’s school.

The most valuable wealth of a man is his knowledge, which cannot be destroyed; all other riches that he has gained are not considered to be wealth at all.

For me, 'rich' isn't having lots of money; rich is having loads of things in your head.

One destitute of wealth is not destitute, he is indeed rich, but the man devoid of learning is destitute in every way.

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

Begin to build up confidence and joy in your own richness. That richness is the essence of generosity. It is the essence of resourcefulness ; that you can deal with whatever is available around you and not feel poverty stricken.

Thou art an heyre to fayre lying, that is nothing, if thou be disinherited of learning, for better were it to thee to inherite righteousnesse then riches, and far more seemly were if for thee to haue thy Studie full of bookes, then thy pursse full of mony.

Knowledge cannot be stolen from us. It cannot be bought or sold. We may be poor, and the sheriff may come and sell our furniture, or drive away our cow, or take our pet lamb, and leave us homeless and penniless; but he cannot lay the law's hand upon the jewelry of our minds.

O Contentment, make me rich! for without thee there is no wealth.

Wisdom with an inheritance is good, but wisdom without an inheritance is better than an inheritance without wisdom.

The wealth of mankind is the wisdom they leave.

All one can really leave one's children is what's inside their heads. Education, in other words, and not earthly possessions, is the ultimate legacy, the only thing that cannot be taken away.

Though an inheritance of acres may be bequeathed, an inheritance of knowledge and wisdom cannot. The wealthy man may pay others for doing his work for him; but it is impossible to get his thinking done for him by another, or to purchase any kind of self-culture.

Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences.

Wisdom remembers. Happiness forgets.

Knowledge is the only thing I take with me when I go.

There are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the poorest laborer can have for nothing.

We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation.

If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual, keep a journal. Don't trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down. When you come across something important, write it down.

It is as well now and then not to remember all we know.