Herman Melville Quotes

If there is no hell, a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretenses.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle or a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven, than for a politician to lay aside disguise.

That radicalism (of the '70s) was phony, really, because it was out of guilt. I'd always felt guilty that I made money, so I had to give it away or lose it. I don't mean I was a hypocrite. When I believe, I believe right down to the roots.

Seneca devoted much of his time to writing essays in praise of poverty, and in lending money at usurious rates.

Those that say they despise riches are saints or liars.

Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.

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.

Some people are so poor, all they have is their money.

I'm just a good Catholic boy - I do naughty things and feel guilty about them.

There's also the idea in this country [USA], it's not wholly new, but it's new in its kind of purity, in that you have to be really smart to be really rich. I always say to people, the reason people believe this is a) they've never met a really smart person, and b) they've never met a really rich person. I have met both, and I cannot see the crossover. You do not have to be a genius to get rich. You have to be ruthless to get rich.

Never esteem people (including yourself) more because they have money, nor think less of anyone (including yourself) because they lack it. Virtue is the only just reason for respecting anyone, lack of virtue the only reason for holding anyone in low regard.

That which you condemn will condemn you, and that which you judge, you will one day become.

We all eventually become whatever we pretend to hate.

It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.

You can live opposite of what you profess, but you cannot live opposite of what you believe.

All else-valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth-is secondary to the charm of riches.

No matter how big a house you have or how slick a car you drive, the only thing you can take with you at the end of your life is your conscience.

The rich are the most discriminated-against minority in the world. Openly or covertly, everybody hates the rich because, openly or covertly, everybody envies the rich. Me, I love the rich. Somebody has to love them. Sure, a lot o’ rich people are assholes, but believe me, a lot o’ poor people are assholes, too, and an asshole with money can at least pay for his own drinks.

I respect humanity. That's my religion. I can't stand these religions that are really businesses. So much money everywhere that's going to buy a really nice house in heaven - or what? I don't get it.

He [the Rev. Mr. Whitefield] used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.

In hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell.

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.

I told Clooney, George, you’re worth $100 million — of course you can afford to be a socialist!