Quotes About Greed

1. “Greed makes man blind and foolish, and makes him an easy prey for death.”

— Rumi

2. “Greed has poisoned men’s souls.”

— Charlie Chaplin

3. “Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.”

— Erich Fromm

4. “The twin killers of success are impatience and greed.”

— Jim Rohn

5. “Greed’s worst point is its ingratitude.”

— Seneca the Younger

6. “Greed is the assumption that it is all for my consumption.”

— Andy Stanley

7. “Greed is permanent slavery.”

— Ali ibn Abi Talib

8. “Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.”

— Aaron Swartz

9. “People’s lives are forever controlled by two emotions: fear and greed.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

10. “If you ask for too much, you lose even that which you have.”

— Isaac Asimov

11. “I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.”

— Warren Buffett

Also featured in: Fear Quotes

12. “We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.”

— Stephen Hawking

13. “It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.”

— Charlie Munger

14. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”

— William Blake

15. “No one is born with greed, prejudice, bigotry, patriotism and hatred; these are all learned behavior patterns.”

— Jacque Fresco

16. “Classism and greed are making insignificant all the other kinds of isms.”

— Ruby Dee

17. “Ignorance, hatred and greed are killing nature.”

— Masanobu Fukuoka

18. “Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed.”

— Mwai Kibaki

Also featured in: Opportunity Quotes

19. “To those who can hear me, I say – do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.”

— Charlie Chaplin

Also featured in: Progress Quotes

20. “Capitalism has been called a system of greed – yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.”

— Ayn Rand

21. “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

— Warren Buffett

Also featured in: Fear Quotes

22. “Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings.”

— Anthony de Mello

23. “Greed is good. Sex is easy. Youth is forever.”

— Bret Easton Ellis

24. “People say that the monetary system produces incentive. This may be true in limited areas, but it also produces greed, embezzlement, corruption, pollution, jealousy, anger, crime, war, poverty, tremendous scarcity, and unnecessary human suffering. You have to look at the entire picture.”

— Jacque Fresco

25. “Greed may not be good, but it’s not so bad either. You humans think greed is just for money or power, but everyone wants something they can’t have.”

— Hiromu Arakawa

26. “Politics – I don’t know why, but they seem to have a tendency to separate us, to keep us from one another, while nature is always and ever making efforts to bring us together.”

— Seán O'Casey

27. “The human heart is greedy; it will use religion, color, or any other excuse to justify its greed. Blame the human heart.”

— Bono

28. “The greed of the billionaire class has got to end and we are going to end it for them.”

— Bernie Sanders

29. “The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes-naked greed and misconceived philanthropy.”

— Frédéric Bastiat

30. “What kind of society isn’t structured on greed?”

— Milton Friedman

31. “If I have to build a big company by mistreating other people then the Bible says WOE to me. I don’t know what that is, but I don’t want any of it.”

— Joyce Meyer

32. “How shrunk, how dwindled, in our times Creation’s mighty seed – For Man has broke the Fellowship With murder, lust, and greed.”

— Margaret Atwood

33. “TARIFF, n. A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer.”

— Ambrose Bierce

34. “Politicians never accuse you of ‘greed’ for wanting other people’s money – only for wanting to keep your own money.”

— Joseph Sobran

35. “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.”

— Frederick Douglass

36. “No purpose intervenes between I and You, no greed and no anticipation; and longing itself is changed as it plunges from the dream into appearance. Every means is an obstacle. Only where all means have disintegrated encounters occur.”

— Martin Buber

37. “There is no force more potent in the modern world than stupidity fueled by greed.”

— Edward Abbey

38. “I want an Oompa-Loompa!? screamed Veruca.”

— Roald Dahl

39. “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”

— Erich Fromm

Also featured in: Effort Quotes

40. “Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons.”

— Frank Zappa