Ten Quotes on Money

"Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary." -Julius Rosenwald (1862 - 1932)

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"If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars." -J. Paul Getty (1892 - 1976)

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"Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil." -Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754)

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"Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody." -Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

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"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart." -Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)

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"Endless money forms the sinews of war." -Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Philippics

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"One must be poor to know the luxury of giving." -George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

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"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game." -Donald Trump (1946 - ), "Trump: Art of the Deal"

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If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves there wouldn't be enough to go around.
Christina Stead (1903 - 1983), House of All Nations (1938) "Credo"

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"Lack of money is the root of all evil." -George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Banker Joke: Wanna Bet?

A little old lady went into the Bank of Canada one day, carrying a bag of money. She insisted that she must speak with the president of the bank to open a savings account because, "It's a lot of money!"

After much hemming and hawing, the bank staff finally ushered her into the president's office (the customer is always right!). The bank president then asked her how much she would like to deposit. She replied, "$165,000!" and dumped the cash out of her bag onto his desk.

The president was of course curious as to how she came by all this cash, so he asked her, "Ma'am, I'm surprised you're carrying so much cash around. Where did you get this money?" The old lady replied, "I make bets."

The president then asked, "Bets? What kind of bets?" The old woman said, "Well, for example, I'll bet you $25,000 that your balls are square." "Ha!" laughed the president, "That's a stupid bet. You can never win that kind of bet!"

The old lady challenged, "So, would you like to take my bet?"

"Sure," said the president, "I'll bet $25,000 that my balls are not square!"
The little old lady then said, "Okay, but since there is a lot of money involved, may I bring my lawyer with me tomorrow at 10am as a witness?"

"Sure!" replied the confident president. That night, the president got very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of a mirror checking his balls, turning from side to side, again and again. He thoroughly checked them out until he was sure that there was absolutely no way his balls were square and that he would win the bet.

The next morning, at precisely 10am, the little old lady appeared with her lawyer at the president's office. She introduced the lawyer to the president and repeated the bet "$25,000 says the president's balls are square!" The president agreed with the bet again and the old lady asked him to drop his pants so they could all see. The president complied. The little old lady peered closely at his balls and then asked if she could feel them. "Well, Okay," said the president, "$25,000 is a lot of money, so I guess you should be absolutely sure."

Just then, he noticed that the lawyer was quietly banging his head against the wall. The president asked the old lady, "What the hell's the matter with your lawyer?" She replied, "Nothing, except I bet him $100,000 that at 10am today I'd have The Bank of Canada's president's balls in my hand.

Source: www.becquet.com

(Photo courtesy of Flickr.com)

Quotes From "Tuesdays With Morrie"

Mitch Albom's international bestseller "Tuesdays with Morrie" is a must-read book for anyone interested in life's lessons. I bought my copy right after New Year 2001 as I contemplated early retirement after 27 years of employment. My actual early retirement came a year later. By that time, I felt psychologically prepared just to fade away and sail into the sunset. Later events, however, proved that that was not yet meant to be. But then, that's another story altogether. Meantime, enjoy the following passages, attributed by the author to Morrie Schwartz, which I liked in this book:

On Culture:

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." (p.42)

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"People are only mean when they're threatened, and that's what our culture does...And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture." (p.42)

On Tension of Opposites:

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else." (p.40)

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"A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle." (p.40)

On Love:

"Love wins. Love always wins." (p.40)

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"Love each other or die." (p.163)

On Forgiveness:

"Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." (p.164)

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"We...need to forgive ourselves...For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened." (p.166)

On Getting Meaning into Life:

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." (p.43)

On Most Important Thing in Life:

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." (p.52)

On Trust:

"...if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too--even when you're in the dark." (p.61)

On Friendship:

"...we've had thirty-five years of friendship. You don't need speech or hearing to feel that." (p.71)

On Death and Ambition:

"...the truth is...if you accept that you can die at any time--then you might not be as ambitious as you are." (p.83)

On Family:

"The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family." (p.91)

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"If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important." (p.91)

On Having Children:

"There is no experience like having children...If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children." (p.93)

On Material Things:

"Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent." (p.103)

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"You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship." (p.125)

On Emotions:

"If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid." (p.104)

On Dying and Living:

"When you learn how to die, you learn how to live." (p.104)

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"Don't let go too soon but, but don't hang on too long." (p.162)

On Being a Child:

"We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, it's just remembering how to enjoy it." (p.116)

On Youth:

"...I know what a misery being young can be, so don't tell me it's so great." (p.117)

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"...in addition to all the miseries, the young are not wise. They have very little understanding about life." (p.118)

On Aging:

"Aging is ot just decay...It's growth." (p.118)

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"If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow." (p.118,119)

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"You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue." (p.120)

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"How can I be envious of where you are--when I've been there myself." (p.121)

On Money and Power:

"Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness." (p.125)

On Status and Showing Off:

"...if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone." (p.127)

On Immortality:

"...love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone." (p.133)

On Marriage:

"I've learned this much about marriage. You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't." (p.149)

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"...there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike." (p.149)

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"I think marriage is a very important thing to do, and you're missing a hell of a lot if you don't try it." (p.149)

On Shortsightedness:

"...no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don't see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can be come." (p.156)

On Needing Others:

"In the beginning of life, when we were infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right? But here's the secret: in between, we need others as well." (p.157)

On Being Number Two:

"What's wrong with being number two?" (p.159)

On the Important Questions:

"As I see it, they have to do with love, responsibility, spirituality, awareness." (p.175)

On Death :

"Death ends a life, not a relationship." (p.174)

On Relationships:

"There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like." (p.177,178)

-Mitch Albom