William Shakespeare Quotes on Money & Wealth (31 Quotes)

It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as you
will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and
gold, and silver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bed-Got
deliver to a joyful resurrections!

I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty-
SEBASTIAN.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy rich, not gaudy For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

Ah, but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.

Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse-
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me, were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas.

For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. My dearest lord, bless'd, to be most accursed, Rich, only to be wretched, thy great fortunes; Are made thy chief afflictions.

Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house as your pearl in a foul oyster

Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on.

Hast any philosophy in thee shepherd . ... He that wants money, means and content, is without three good friends that the property of rain is to wet and fire to burn that good pasture makes fat sheep, and a great cause of the night is lack of the sun that he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred.

Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father
be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth's sake use her with more kindness;
Or, if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness;
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;
Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyalty;
Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger;
Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint;
Be secret-false.

For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts, do crownèd sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store.

To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends.

If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me If I do wake, some planet strike me down, That I may slumber in eternal sleep.

The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy
particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than thy old father
Menenius does!

Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' costs,
Of more delight than hawks and horses be;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast-
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take,
All this away and me most wretched make.

What the declin'd is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer;
And not a man for being simply man
Hath any honour, but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour,
Prizes of accident, as oft as merit;
Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
Doth one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall.

I am not worthy of the wealth I owe, Nor dare I say 'tis mine, and yet it is But, like a timorous thief, most fain would steal What law does vouch mine own.

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.

They are but beggars that can count their worth, But my true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.

Famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back:
The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it and take this.

You that have so fair parts of woman on you
Have too a woman's heart, which ever yet
Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty;
Which, to say sooth, are blessings; and which gifts,
Saving your mincing, the capacity
Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive
If you might please to stretch it.

If thou art rich, thou art poor for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest the heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee.

Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say there is no sin, but to be rich And, being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say there is no vice, but beggary.

I would be friends with you, and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with,
Supply your present wants, and take no doit
Of usance for my moneys, and you'll not hear me.

So am I as the rich whose blessèd key
Can bring him to his sweet up-lockèd treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.

Upon my life, by some device or other
The villain is o'erraught of all my money.

Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroiderd canopy To kings that fear their subjects treachery.