Greed Quotes

Our entire society is rooted around the idea of more, and longer has become the measure of success.

Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. The only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.

You are a den of vipers and thieves ... by the eternal God, I will rout you out.

It's true that people will take advantage of you in Nigeria, but this happens everywhere in the world.

People are chasing cash, not happiness. When you chase money, you're going to lose. You're just going to. Even if you get the money, you're not going to be happy.

O, you anarchic scum, you cowardly murderers, you leeches upon honest labor, you midnight assassins!

The best way to make money is to start a religion.

Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money.

I have not come here for such reasons. I have come to take away their gold.

The kings are ravenous beasts, their ministers are dogs.

I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out.

I like when money makes a difference but don't make you different

I've prepared 100 coffins. 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself.

The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains.

The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!

[Political] offices are as acceptable here as elsewhere, and whenever a man cast a longing eye on them, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony

Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

We must adjust our value systems and work to modify today's societies, in which economic interests are carried to the extreme and irrationally produce not merely objects, but weapons of war. These societies don't care about the destruction of the planet and mankind as long as they earn profits - it can't go on like this.

Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff