quotations about debt
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796
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
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
Whatever we owe, it is our part to find where to pay it, and to do it without asking, too; for whether the creditor be good or bad, the debt is still the same.
SENECA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Never ever have a nickel in my jeans
Never ever have a debt to pay
Still I understand what real contentment means
Guess I was born that way
DEAN MARTIN
"Twilight on the Trail", Once in a While
A slight debt produces a debtor; a heavy one an enemy.
A. S. DOANE
attributed, Day's Collacon
A debt is still unpaid, even if forgotten.
IRISH PROVERB
I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.
SAKI
The Unbearable Bassington
A debt ... is just an exchange that has not been brought to completion.
DAVID GRAEBER
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate; debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be foregone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Nature and Other Essays
Debt, however courteously it be offered, is the cup of a siren, and the wine, spiced and delicious though it be, an eating poison. The man out of debt, though with a flaw in his jerkin, a crack in his shoe-leather, and a hole in his hat, is still the son of liberty, free as the singing lark above him; but the debtor, though clothed in the utmost bravery, what is he but a serf out upon a holiday--a slave to be reclaimed at any instant by his owner, the creditor?
DOUGLAS JERROLD
Western Temperance Journal, Mar. 15, 1841
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
letter to Robert Morris, Apr. 30, 1781
Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.
HENRIK IBSEN
A Doll's House
By no means run in debt: take thine own measure,
Who cannot live on twenty pound a year,
Cannot on forty.
GEORGE HERBERT
The Church Porch
Knock out a small debt first so you get a quick win. Momentum is key.
DAVE RAMSEY
daily tip
It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.
CICERO
Epistulae ad Familiares
Debt haunts the mind; a conversation about justice troubles it; the sight of a creditor fills it with confusion; even the sanctuary is not a place of refuge.
DR. CHARTERY
The London and Paris Observer, 1826
Debt is the slavery of the free.
CROFT M. PENTZ
The Complete Book of Zingers
Think, think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for the second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
On one level the difference between an obligation and a debt is simple and obvious. A debt is the obligation to pay a certain sum of money. As a result, a debt, unlike any other form of obligation, can be precisely quantified. This allows debts to become simple, cold, and impersonal--which, in turn, allows them to be transferable. If one owes a favor, or one's life, to another human being--it is owed to that person specifically. But if one owes forty thousand dollars at 12-percent interest, it doesn't really matter who the creditor is; neither does either of the two parties have to think much about what the other party needs, wants, is capable of doing--as they certainly would if what was owed was a favor, or respect, or gratitude. One does not need to calculate principal, balances, penalties, and rates of interest. If you end up having to abandon your home and wander in other provinces, if your daughter ends up in a mining camp working as a prostitute, well, that's unfortunate, but incidental to the creditor. Money is money, and a deal's a deal.
DAVID GRAEBER
Debt: The First 5,000 Years