quotations about debt
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
About the only thing you can acquire without money is debt.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
ENGLISH PROVERB
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
A slight debt produces a debtor; a heavy one an enemy.
A. S. DOANE
attributed, Day's Collacon
I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.
SAKI
The Unbearable Bassington
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 debt is still unpaid, even if forgotten.
IRISH PROVERB
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 debt ... is just an exchange that has not been brought to completion.
DAVID GRAEBER
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
letter to Robert Morris, Apr. 30, 1781
Knock out a small debt first so you get a quick win. Momentum is key.
DAVE RAMSEY
daily tip
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
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
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
It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.
CICERO
Epistulae ad Familiares
Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.
HENRIK IBSEN
A Doll's House
Debt is the slavery of the free.
CROFT M. PENTZ
The Complete Book of Zingers
Getting out of debt is like going on a diet. You can't vow to simply "do better." It will never work. Instead, you need to establish good habits and the guidelines you'll use to stick with them.
ERIC REED
"How to Get Out of Debt and Lower Your Interest Rates Now", The Street, December 4, 2018
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