Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.

Being of sound mind I spent every cent I ever had.

We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means.

Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.

Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.

The progressive pretense is that these people, who have created virtually nothing, are actually the real creators of the nation's wealth.

Right, but you know, what would any of us lose by losing our possessions. Maybe we would gain something, like relationships, like the beauty of good friends, intimacy, you know what I mean, man? Like we wouldn't be losing anything if we lost our stuff, we'd be gaining everything.

Citizen Kane was really about accumulation, and at the end of the accumulation, you see what happens, and it's not necessarily all positive. In real life, I believe that wealth does in fact isolate you from other people. It's a protective mechanism. You have your guard up much more so than you would if you didn't have wealth.

I was asked in an interview which was more important: money or love? I told the interviewer that if he had to ask the question, he wouldn't understand the answer.