quotations about debt
The big celebration, the wedding or housewarming, takes place not when the debt is discharged, but when it is undertaken. What is emphasized on TV, for example, is not the middle-aged man who has finally paid off his mortgage, but the young man who moves into his new home with his family, proudly waving the papers he has just signed and which will bind him for most of his productive years. After he has paid his debts--the mortgage, the college expenses for his children and his insurance--he is regarded as a problem, a "senior citizen" for whom society must provide not only material comforts but a new "purpose."
ERIC BERNE
Games People Play
There are two things that bestow consequence; great possession, or great debts.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
It takes many lives till we succeed
To clear the debts
Of many, many hundred years
ENIGMA
"Second Chapter", The Cross of Changes
A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays.
CHINUA ACHEBE
No Longer at Ease
Another thing that leads people into debt is trying to keep up with people already there.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
It is a remarkable peculiarity with debts, that their expanding power continues to increase as you contract them.
R. C. DALLAS
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
diary, Jul. 13, 1879
Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.
BANJAMIN DISRAELI
Henrietta Temple
Man hazards the condition and loses the virtues of a freeman, in proportion as he accustoms his thoughts to view without anguish or shame, his lapse into the bondage of debtor.
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
Caxtoniana
There is nothing more to be dreaded than debt; when a person, whose principles are good, unhappily falls into this situation, adieu to all peace and comfort; the reflection embitters every meal, and drives from the eyelids refreshing sleep.
JEREMY TAYLOR
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is, of course, a gold mine or a buried treasure on every mortgaged homestead. Whether the farmer ever digs for it or not, it is there, haunting his daydreams when the burden of debt is most unbearable.
FAWN M. BRODIE
No Man Knows My History
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
MERLE TRAVIS
"Sixteen Tons", Folk Songs of the Hills
Debt is to man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave.
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
Caxtoniana
There is no happiness with responsibilities which cannot be met, and debts increasing without any prospect of their discharge.
JACOB ABBOTT
attributed, Day's Collacon
The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her!
ROSS PEROT
Ross Perot Speaks Out
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine government, and corrupt the people.
WENDELL PHILLIPS
The War for the Union
The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.
P. G. WODEHOUSE
Love Among the Chickens
Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound; great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger. You must, therefore, be enabled to discharge petty debts, that you may have leisure with security, to struggle with the rest.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Life of Samuel Johnson
What you can't pay back you pay forward.
JO WALTON
Farthing
A slight debt produces a debtor; a heavy one an enemy.
A. S. DOANE
attributed, Day's Collacon