96 Quotes About Debt

Do not make people feel overly indebted to you. In their quest to restore the illusive balance and wipe out the debt, they will demonize and attribute wrongdoings to you. Instead, give with love and receive with gratitude. Charbel Tadros

The world economy would collapse if a significant number of people were to realize and then act on the realization that it is possible to enjoy many if not most of the things that they enjoy without first having to own them. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Always remember this, Henri. Men trade for profit. They are driven by greed. But debt is about fear, and fear is stronger than greed. The true power, the weapon that defeats all others, is debt. Fools search for gold. The wise man studies debt. That is the key to all business. Edward Rutherfurd

The bank wanted me to sell those customers that debt, because the system needs you to buy that new car, that holiday to Barbados, that latest i Phone or that new extension you’ve always been dreaming off. The banks are happy to let you do it with their high interest credit products, and they want me to be the guy that sells the idea to you. I was serving the machine that was enslaving me. K.A. Hill

It used to be that rebels were the type who wore leather jackets, rode motorcycles, smoked cigarettes and drank cheap domestic beer. Today’s rebels are people who look at their world critically and observe the ensnaring patterns of the consumeristic lifestyle." (Life Hacks, p.50 Jon Morrison

Some people will each start investing more of their salary on ‘their’ house and spending less of it on ‘their’ car or cars only when they start being able to take ‘their’ house to work, funerals, weddings, etc. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Thomas Jefferson

Money is sacred as everyone knows... So then must be the hunger for it and the means we use to obtain it. Once a man is in debt he becomes a flesh and blood form of money, a walking investment. You can do what you like with him, you can work him to death or you can sell him. This cannot be called cruelty or greed because we are seeking only to recover our investment and that is a sacred duty. Barry Unsworth

Nature is an expert in cost-benefit analysis, ' she says. 'Although she does her accounting a little differently. As for debts, she always collects in the long run... Margaret Atwood

As Charles Darwin said, ' The economy shown by Nature in her resources is striking, '' says the Spirit. 'All wealth comes from Nature. Without it, there wouldn't be any economics. The primary wealth is food, not money. Therefore anything that concerns the handling of the land also concerns me. Margaret Atwood

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. Alexis De Tocqueville

In many cases, it was the woman’s stomach–not her heart–that fell for her man. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

In some cases, it is the woman’s stomach–not her heart–that has left her man for another. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

[Credit is a system whereby] a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Charles Dickens

In fact this is precisely the logic on which the Bank of England–the first successful modern central bank–was originally founded. In 1694, a consortium of English bankers made a loan of £1, 200, 000 to the king. In return they received a royal monopoly on the issuance of banknotes. What this meant in practice was they had the right to advance IOUs for a portion of the money the king now owed them to any inhabitant of the kingdom willing to borrow from them, or willing to deposit their own money in the bank–in effect, to circulate or "monetize" the newly created royal debt. This was a great deal for the bankers (they got to charge the king 8 percent annual interest for the original loan and simultaneously charge interest on the same money to the clients who borrowed it) , but it only worked as long as the original loan remained outstanding. To this day, this loan has never been paid back. It cannot be. If it ever were, the entire monetary system of Great Britain would cease to exist. David Graeber

...If you look at mainstream economics there are three things you will not find in a mainstream economic model - Banks, Debt, and Money. How anybody can think they can analyze capital while leaving out Banks, Debt, and Money is a bit to me like an ornithologist trying to work out how a bird flies whilst ignoring that the bird has wings... Steve Keen

And don't tell me debt is not a big deal. Debt will cut off your legs and laugh at you as you grovel in the dirt begging for mercy. If you don't need it, don't get it. If you can't afford it, don't get it. If you're already in debt, get out quickly. If you think you'll never get out, you're right, you won't. Osayi Emokpae Lasisi

A Debt Problem Is, At Its Core, a Budgeting Problem. Natalie Pace

It’s time to ask why [the United States] is the only country in the world where we permit our children to be saddled with tens – sometimes hundreds – of thousands of dollars of debt before they begin to earn a penny. F.H. Buckley

Here is an equation worth remembering: Five dollars earned minus seven dollars spent = Unhappy Life." (Life Hacks, p.51) Jon Morrison

When you are willing to be everything that you are, you become an infinitely creative source for everything in your life - including money. Simone Milasas

The most empowering thing you can do though is to create innovative ways to bring in livable wages. That begins with a debt free lifestyle. Brandi L. Bates

You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one. The family economy evades calculation in the gross planetary product. It's the only deal I know where, when you give more than you get, you aren't bankrupted - but rather, vastly enriched. Lois McMaster Bujold

She says, "Do you have any rubbers?" I say, I thought she was barren. "Sure, I'm sterile, " she says, "but I've had unprotected sex with a million guys. I could have some terrible fatal disease." I say that would only be a problem if I wanted to live a lot longer. Fertility says, " That's how I feel about my giant credit card debt." So we have sex. If you could call it that. Chuck Palahniuk

Parenting is the greatest pay it forward system on earth. We don't owe our parents anything. We owe our children everything. The same was true for our parents. The same will be true for our children. Dan Pearce

Your emotions will wander like a vagabond when you're indebted. Those happy moments with friends will soon be interrupted with a frowning creditor in your sub-conscious, and all your frenzy will be taken aback. Michael Bassey Johnson

The human eye is restricted to see the useen, because there’s a price to be paid to the rulers of this image and if this image is seen by you, you’ll dare not divulge it to others, for others must pay a price Michael Bassey Johnson

We owe some of our successes to people who did not want to help us more than we do to those who have helped us. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Savers have to be punished so debtors can be saved. Why? Because if debtors are rescued, that makes it possible for more debts to be issued in the future. And why is that important? Because the banking system needs ever more loans in order to survive. Chris Martenson

Debt .. .. that peculiar nexus where money, narrative or story, and religious belief intersect, often with explosive force. Margaret Atwood

If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much. Helene Hanff

One of the most important things a man must bear in mind is this very thing - that he owes his fellow a transforming encounter. Ogwo David Emenike

If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon himself, and pay it for me. But if I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed. Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty even if the innocent would offer itself. To suppose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the thing itself. It is then no longer justice. It is indiscriminate revenge. Thomas Paine

An honest man is a debtless man, he doesn't owe anyone anything. Amit Kalantri

Even in the Bible, the admonition in the Ten Commandments not to 'covet thy neighbor's wife' clearly referred not to lust in one's heart (adultery had already been covered in commandment number seven), but to the prospect of taking her as a debt-peon–in other words, as a servant to sweep one's yard and hang out the laundry. David Graeber

A country of free men is not free if they are owned by somebody else. Joseph P. Sekula

An emotional debt is hard to square. Iceberg Slim

Karma has been a pop culture term for ages. But really, what the heck is it? Karma is not an inviolate engine of cosmic punishment. Rather, it is a neutral sequence of acts, results, and consequences. Receiving misfortune does not necessarily indicate that one has committed evil. But it is a sufficient indicator of something else. And that something else can be anything, as long as it is a logical consequence of what has come before. Consider: if you fall into a well, you are not a bad person who deserves to suffer–you are merely someone who took a wrong step. Or someone who had one drink too many. Or got a head rush due to poor circulation. Or forgot to wear your glasses. Or–The reasons are plentiful, and all plausible. But the chain of cause and effect goes way, way back into the deepest hoariest recesses of your personal past. So never rule out retribution. But never expect it. Vera Nazarian

We do not owe any soul, except that which played the most vital role in our lives. Michael Bassey Johnson

No one would argue that we owe a debt of gratitude to the Goliath Corporation. They helped us to rebuild after the Second War and it should not be forgotten. Of late, however, it seems as though the Goliath Corporation is falling far short of its promises of fairness and altruism. We are finding ourselves now in the unfortunate position of continuing to pay back a debt that has long since been paid--with interest.. . Jasper Fforde

The gift was not large as money goes, and my need was not great, but the spirit of the gift is beyond price and leaves me blessed and in debt. Robert Fulghum

Old: Give me liberty or give me death. - New: Give me liberty or give me debt. Orrin Woodward

I love America for its bourgeois comfort. If I was as heavily in debt as they are, I wouldn't be drinking tea or coffee anywhere. I would be sipping tap water from an old bottle and serving others tea or coffee in a cafe somewhere. Vann Chow

I spend my life constantly calling in ‘imaginary’ debts that aren’t owed to me in order to avoid the ‘real’ debts that I owe to others, and so everybody ends up bankrupt. Craig D. Lounsbrough

Years ago, I dated a lovely young woman who was a few thousand dollars in debt. She was completely stressed out about this. Every month, more interest would be added to her debts. To deal with her stress, she would go every Tuesday night to a meditation and yoga class. This was her one free night, and she said it seemed to be helping her. She would breathe in, imagining that she was finding ways to deal with her debts. She would breathe out, telling herself that her money problems would one day be behind her. It went on like this, Tuesday after Tuesday.Finally, one day I looked through her finances with her. I figured out that if she spent four or five months working a part-time job on Tuesday nights, she could actually pay off all the money she owed. I told her I had nothing against yoga or meditation. But I did think its always best to try to treat the disease first. Her symptoms were stress and anxiety. Her disease was the money she owed." Why don't you get a job on Tuesday nights and skip yoga for a while?" I suggested. This was something of a revelation to her. And she took my advice. She became a Tuesday-night waitress and soon enough paid off her debts. After that, she could go back to yoga and really breathe easier. Randy Pausch

If employment really cared about employees, people wouldn’t have to work until retirement comes to their rescue. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Raphael's hand tightened on the hilt of the knife. His knuckles were white. He spoke to Magnus. "I have no soul, " he said. "But I made you a promise on my mother's doorstep, and she was sacred to me."" Santiago- " Sebastian began." I was a child then. I am not now." The knife fell to the floor. Raphael turned and looked at Sebastian, his wide dark eyes very clear. "I cannot, " he said. "I will not. I owe him a debt from many years ago. . Cassandra Clare

The difference between the past and the present is that individual freedom and security no longer fall to be protected solely through the D vehicle of common-law maxims and presumptions which may be altered or repealed by statute, but are now protected by entrenched constitutional provisions which neither the Legislature nor the Executive may abridge. It would accordingly be improper for us to hold constitutional a system which, as Sachs J has noted, confers on creditors the power to consign the person of an impecunious debtor to prison at will and without the interposition at the crucial time of a judicial officer. Pius Langa

My conclusions, on this point, are as follows: when the Law Commission says committal of judgment debtors is an anomaly that cannot be justified and should be abolished; when it is common cause that there is a general international move away from imprisonment for civil debt, of which the present committal proceedings are an adapted relic; when such imprisonment has been abolished in South Africa, save for its contested form as contempt of court in the magistrate's court; when the clauses concerned have already been interpreted by the Courts as restrictively as possible, without their constitutionally offensive core being eviscerated; when other tried and tested methods exist for recovery of debt from those in a position to pay; when the violation of the fundamental right to personal freedom is manifest, and the procedures used must inevitably possess a summary character if they are to be economically worthwhile to the creditor, then the very institution of civil imprisonment, however it may be described and however well directed its procedures might be, in itself must be regarded as highly questionable and not a compelling claimant for survival. Albie Sachs

We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins -- they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day -- of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago. These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man. . Robert G. Ingersoll

Beyond the speculative and often fraudulent froth that characterizes much of neoliberal financial manipulation, there lies a deeper process that entails the springing of ‘the debt trap’ as a primary means of accumulation by dispossession. Crisis creation, management, and manipulation on the world stage has evolved into the fine art of deliberative redistribution of wealth from poor countries to the rich. I documented the impact of Volcker’s interest rate increase on Mexico earlier. While proclaiming its role as a noble leader organizing ‘bail-outs’ to keep global capital accumulation on track, the US paved the way to pillage the Mexican economy. This was what the US Treasury—Wall Street—IMF complex became expert at doing everywhere. Greenspan at the Federal Reserve deployed the same Volcker tactic several times in the 1990s. Debt crises in individual countries, uncommon during the 1960s, became very frequent during the 1980s and 1990s. Hardly any developing country remained untouched, and in some cases, as in Latin America, such crises became endemic. These debt crises were orchestrated, managed, and controlled both to rationalize the system and to redistribute assets. Since 1980, it has been calculated, ‘over fifty Marshall Plans (over $4.6 trillion) have been sent by the peoples at the Periphery to their creditors in the Center’. ‘What a peculiar world’, sighs Stiglitz, ‘in which the poor countries are in effect subsidizing the richest. David Harvey

If you commit to giving more time than you have to spend, you will constantly be running from time debt collectors. Elizabeth Grace Saunders

If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has. John Maynard Keynes

You don’t have the body you don’t have a debt. Ask for a loan. Simon Mashalla

It's the giving that makes one stronger, but sometimes the taking can make one weaker, if even vulnerable or blinding. Anthony Liccione

Something I owe to the soil that grew-- More to the life that fed-- But most to Allah who gave me two Separate sides of my head. I would go without shirt or shoes, Friends, tobacco, or bread Sooner than for an instant lose Either side of my head. Rudyard Kipling

Most are inclined to recline into a reclining position, in order to enjoy the decline. Unknown

Marketing's illusive promise is that this one product will change your life, make you feel more sexy, satisfy all your heart's desires. L.G. Durand

In short, if you are using a shovel to dig yourself into a hole, a credit card company will be happy to give you a backhoe. Jason G. Miller

In 1987 Senator Jesse Helms, stated "it is no secret that the international bankers profiteer form sovereign state debt. The New York banks have found important profit centers in lending to countries plunged into debt by Socialist regimes. Under Socialist regimes, countries go deeper and deeper into debt because Socialism as an economic system does not work. International bankers are sophisticated enough to understand this phenomenon and they are sophisticated enough to profit from it. . Mark M. Rich

Being instinctively lazy, I see no point in working longer hours just to get out of debt ! L.G. Durand

The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and was to be repaid to a stranger. Robert Fulghum

Don't take on more student loans than your future-self can handle. Carol H. Cox

Our nation stands at the crossroads of liberty. Crushing national debt, rampant illegal immigration, insane business regulations and staggering national unemployment are pushing our nation into unchartered territory. James Lankford

We owe our World War II veterans - and all our veterans - a debt we can never fully repay. Doc Hastings

When I was a youngster growing up in South Dakota, we never referred to the national debt, it was always referred to as the war debt because it stemmed from World War I. George McGovern

Science does not know its debt to imagination. Ralph Waldo Emerson

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim. Queen Elizabeth II

It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants slavery. Patrick Henry

When President Obama was in the Senate, when he was a U.S. senator, he voted against raising the debt ceiling. And he said it was a lack of leadership that had brought us to this point. Cathy McMorris Rodgers

The commercial space industry owes a huge debt to Patti Grace Smith. There might not be a commercial spaceflight industry were it not for Patti's leadership. Bruce Pittman

It's very difficult to explain to a normal working citizen the implications of what $18 trillion in debt means and what it means when the Federal Reserve buys the U.S. Treasury bonds to finance our loss every month. Steve Wynn

The transaction cost approach maintains that some projects are easy to finance by debt and ought to be financed by debt. These are projects for which physical-asset specificity is low to moderate. Oliver E. Williamson

Spain is finding it very difficult to finance itself with sovereign debt risk premium so high. Mariano Rajoy

There are lots of families who - who make irresponsible purchases. There are also a lot of families who have debt on credit cards because they use those credit cards to pay for medical bills. Elizabeth Warren

Without true medical liability reform, our doctors will continue to leave, and young doctors coming out of medical school $100, 000 to $200, 000 in debt will not be able to afford such onerous costs. Jim Gerlach

I had a sense of debt to the medical profession and to surgery particularly. I would not be as ambient as I am without it. Jeffrey Tate

In fighting the debt crisis, E.U. countries have enhanced co-operation and carried out reform with tremendous courage. This is laudable. Li Keqiang

The federal debt in this country is principally of Republican design. Daniel Keys Moran

These subsidies from four European governments, which include aircraft launch assistance, capital injections, debt forgiveness, have enabled Airbus to develop and range market airliners well below cost. Norm Dicks

No amount of debt restructuring, even debt forgiveness, will help the Greeks achieve real prosperity. What they need is not short-term relief but, rather, a long-term cure. Edmund Phelps

The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. Carl Jung

You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. Daniel Hannan

I'm constantly questioning the effects technology has had on our lives and the effect that monetary debt has had on all of us. We keep this as a dark little secret: 'This is how much interest I owe.' Rami Malek

Right now, a majority of the debt is owed to foreign interests, Japan being the largest purchaser of government debt today, soon to be surpassed by China as the number one purchaser of our debt in this Nation. Ron Kind

A man in debt is so far a slave. Ralph Waldo Emerson

While I encourage people to save 100% down for a home, a mortgage is the one debt that I don't frown upon. Dave Ramsey

We owe the Aboriginal peoples a debt that is four centuries old. It is their turn to become full partners in developing an even greater Canada. And the reconciliation required may be less a matter of legal texts than of attitudes of the heart. Romeo LeBlanc

I would vote against raising the national debt ceiling. Again, this is about mortgaging the future of unborn generations of Americans. It's a form of taxation without representation. I don't think we can do that. Mike Lee