Jonathan Swift Quotes

There is only one vice, which may be found in life with as strong features, and as high a colouring as needs be employed by any satyrist or comic poet; and that is AVARICE.

For greed, all nature is too little.

Greed, greed, greed. That’s the fundamental problem of mankind. If we can solve that problem, the rest of man’s problems would follow. The only thing that can undermine our free society is greed.

… a creed of greed

To me avarice seems not so much a vice as a deplorable piece of madness.

So for a good old-gentlemanly vice, I think I must take up with avarice.

The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.

Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.

The corruption of the American soul is consumerism.

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

The Puritans were obsessed with the dangers of wealth.

Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.

Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.

I think that money spoils most things, once it becomes the primary motivating force.

The possession of wealth leads almost inevitably to its abuse. It is the chief, if not the only, cause of evils which desolate this world below. The thirst for gold is responsible for the most regrettable lapses into sin.

Greed is good.

… an avalanche of avarice

… ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice

.... the forces of greed

There is something about prosperity that brings out the worst in some people.

Greed is the worst thing.

I hate to say it - it breaks my heart - but we're a tacky, money-obsessed culture.

Avarice fills its purse at the expense of its belly.

A thirst for gold, The beggar's vice, which can but overwhelm The meanest hearts.

People who are greedy have extraordinary capacities for waste-they must, they take in too much.