Richard Steele Quotes

Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism.

Money is not everything. We don't need billions and trillions of dollars.

No one likes to have less than they had before. That's the nature of the human animal.

From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.

Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

There is always greed. There is nothing wrong with greed.

Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.

The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man’s nature.

People are often reproached because their desires are directed mainly to money and they are fonder of it than of anything else. Yet it is natural and even inevitable …. every other blessing can satisfy only one desire and one need; for instance, food is good only to the hungry, wine only for the healthy, medicine for the sick, a fur coat for winter, women for youth, and so on... Money alone is the absolutely good thing because it meets not merely one need in concreto, but needs generally in abstracto.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.

The current public aspiration seems to be: Get what you can. Can what you get. Sit on the can behind gated fences.

Once a man has begun to accumulate money, it is unnatural to stop. He actually gets in a state where he wants more and more..

Nobody seemed to be interested in anything except making money.

I think 'Rheingold' has symbolic meaning of what happens in the world when you're running after the Rhine gold, after the gold. It doesn't end very well. It's kind of a reminder of the values of life, and I think 'The Ring,' in a way, is kind of a prediction of Wagner of what would happen in the world.

Actually, I have no regard for money. Aside from its purchasing power, it's completely useless as far as I'm concerned.

The acquisition of riches has been to many not an end to their miseries, but a change in them: The fault is not in the riches, but the disposition.

God is in heaven, and we all want what's his. But power and greed and corruptible seed seem to be all that there is.

We cannot make a heaven on earth, though we may make a hell.

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.

Let me posses what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.

As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production.

Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning to that path which nature has marked out for him.

Kindness is wisdom. There is none in life But needs it and may learn.

How long does it take man to realize that he cannot want what he wants? You have to live in hell to see heaven.