The 105 Best Greed Phrases

Greed is an important emotional factor when it comes to understanding human behavior. It is associated with the need to have more and more material resources, and therefore, it can be a source of motivation, but it can also put us in a loop of dependency. Therefore, learning to manage it is key.

In this article we will a review of the best phrases of greed reflections about this psychological element and how it affects us.

The most memorable phrases of greed

These are several quotes and reflections on greed that help understand all the facets of this emotional element.

1. Drink quenches thirst, food satisfies hunger; but gold never quenches greed. (Plutarch)

Ambition is generally not satisfied in the medium and long term.

2. He who has more, is more afraid of losing it. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Accumulating more and more can mean starting to fear the possibility of losing it.

3. The more coveted by the world market, the greater the misfortune that a product brings with it to the Latin American people who, with their sacrifice, create it. (Eduardo Galeano)

Greed can make the person sick who only focuses on satisfying it.

4. Do you want to be rich? So do not worry about increasing your wealth, but rather about decreasing your greed. (Epicurus)

Don’t focus on the material, that is not the main thing.

5. Greed is insatiable and always pushing for more. (Roger L’Estrange)

A greedy person is always looking for more.

6. Men forget the death of their father more quickly than the loss of their property. (Nicolas Machiavelli)

Many people appreciate material things more than feelings.

7. The advantages of life you covet; The more you resign yourself to losing them, if it is necessary to achieve them with force. (William Shakespeare)

It refers to how problematic greed is.

8. To those who covet life’s adventure, most of the time good things do not last long. (Popular saying)

To those who rule by greed, nothing lasts.

9. If you want to destroy greed, you must destroy luxury, which is its father. (Cicero)

The more luxuries we have, the more present greed becomes.

10. Because of our greed, much is little; Because of our need, little is much. (Francisco de Quevedo)

Greed causes us to see little when the truth is the opposite.

11. The poor person lacks many things; to the miser, all of them. (Publio Syrus)

A poor person lacks something, while a greedy person lacks everything.

12. Do you want to be rich? So do not worry about increasing your wealth, but rather about decreasing your greed. (Epicurus of Samos)

At every moment things appear that we want to have.

13. It is easier to make a hole in water than to get a coin from a miser. (Armenian proverb)

Greedy people never give any kind of help.

14. Bad greed does not deceive God. (proverb)

Greedy people are easily visible.

15. War is big business. Very often, it is greed and not patriotism that fuels it. (Robert Kiyosaki)

The desire to win and succeed is what rules the world.

16. There is no man who, if he can earn the maximum, will settle for the minimum. (Friedrich Schiller)

We always aspire to have more than what we have.

17. Pride, envy, greed: these are the sparks that have ignited the hearts of all men. (Dante Alighieri)

Unfortunately, greed, pride and envy have taken over human beings.

18. The miser is no poorer with one than with a hundred.

The greedy person is always alone.

19. He who eats and does not give, will die stuffed.

You always have to share with others.

20. Money in the world will always be poorly distributed, because no one thinks about how to distribute it, but about how to keep it. (Noel Clarasó Daudi)

Greed always looks for alternatives that are harmful in the long run.

21. Proudness cures humility, justice cures malice, largesse cures greed, reason, sensuality; loyalty to betrayal; and to prison, freedom is health. (Lucas Fernandez)

Greed causes us to put aside our values.

22. Keep well what is yours and do not covet what belongs to others. If you do this, nothing can prevent you from being happy. (Epictetus)

Accept what you have and stay away from greed.

23. Greed is living in poverty for fear of poverty. (Saint Bernard)

Being greedy often leads to poverty.

24. We covet what we see every day. (Anthony Hopkins)

Greed well carried out leads to success.

25. Greed is a bottomless pit that exhausts a person in an endless effort to satisfy their needs, without ever achieving it. (Erich Fromm)

Greed is a bottomless pit.

26. The miser experiences at the same time all the worries of the rich and all the torments of the poor. (Albert Guinon)

The greedy suffers from both worries and fears.

27. Because greed begins where poverty ends. (Honoré de Balzac)

Lacking something should not lead to greed.

28. The origin of all evil is greed. (André Maurois)

Greed is an evil that takes over the world.

29. Greed takes root deep and grows with more perverse roots than lust, a summer flower. (William Shakespeare)

Greed grows if it is not controlled.

30. People always covet what they do not possess. (Walter Moers)

Generally, people desire what they cannot possess.

31. Behind every name, behind every conflict, if you scratch it a little, the greed for raw materials emerges. (Juan Eslava Galan)

Greed has always existed and will continue to exist.

32. He who chases two hares catches neither. (Publio Syrus)

He who wants to do several things at the same time, something goes wrong.

33. Where command is coveted and disputed, there can be no good government nor will concord reign. (Plato)

Greed to be in control usually prevents harmony from being present.

34. Two sparrows on the same spike will not be together for long. (Miguel De Cervantes)

Friendship and greed do not go hand in hand.

35. The ambitious wants to ascend, as far as his own wings can lift him; The vain man believes he is already at the supreme summits coveted by others. (José Ingenieros)

The ambitious covets what the vain has.

36. Other men are owners of their fortune; The miser is the slave of his own. (Juvenal)

The greedy is a slave.

37. It is more to defeat greed than the enemy. (Spanish proverb)

We must always seek to defeat ambition.

38. Greed does not make what we want happen, nor fear makes what we fear not happen. (Francisco de Quevedo)

Greed does not make you have what you want nor does it take away the fear of losing everything.

39. Greed is the vice of declining years. (George Bancroft)

Greed is a vice that kills.

40. The miser steals from himself. The prodigal, to his heirs. (Thomas Fuller)

The miser and the spendthrift seek to have everything and not share what they have.

41. Attachments lead to jealousy, the shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear losing. (Frank Oz)

We always have something to lose, we have to get used to that.

42. For greed nothing is sacred. If the Phoenix fell into his hands, he would eat it or sell it. (Juan Montalvo)

Greed respects nothing.

43. The miser lacks both what he has and what he does not have. (Antoine Rivarol)

The miser lacks everything.

44. A society that only sees man as an instrument for enrichment is an anti-human society, something that is hostile to us, and therefore we can never accept its false and hypocritical morals. (Maxim Gorky)

It refers to how society views human beings.

45. In the ark of the miser, the devil lies within.

Greed is a very sharp weapon.

46. ​​The mean person carries his own hell within himself. (George Herbert)

Greed brings out evil in each person.

47. So, for a good gentleman’s vice, I think I should accept greed. (Lord Byron)

Greed is considered an elegant vice.

48. Greed will hopefully break your bag! (Jose Hernandez)

Greed always causes problems.

49. He who has little is not poor, but he who covets much.

A person is poor when he covets a lot.

50. The eye of the miser is not satisfied with his lot; Greed dries up the soul. (Ecclesiastical)

Greed damages the spirit.

51. The spiritual greed of those who, knowing something, do not seek to transmit that knowledge is detestable. (Miguel de Unamuno)

Not sharing knowledge is also considered greed.

52. The miser would skin a louse to obtain its skin. (Belgian proverb)

A greedy person is capable of anything.

53. He who has a lot desires more, which shows that he does not have enough; but he who has enough has reached a point that the rich never reaches. (Seneca)

Wealth is not about money but about sharing.

54. A miser is he who does not spend what he owes, nor what he owes, nor when he owes. (Aristotle)

A stingy person would rather have nothing than spend money on something.

55. For the sake of the guilder, do not marry a vile. (Saying)

Greed leads to ruin.

56. More harmful is the abundance that comes from great greed.

Money that comes from greed is worthless.

57. Greed generates envy, a worm that is always gnawing, allowing the greedy to enjoy neither their own good nor that of others. (Saint Catherine of Siena)

Greed generates envy and it produces resentment.

58. Greed is of such an evil and perverse nature that it never satisfies its voracious appetite, and after eating it is hungrier than before. (Dante Alighieri)

Greed is a monster that is never satisfied.

59. Greed, without a doubt, is one of the truest signs of deep unhappiness. (Franz Kafka)

Being greedy produces great unhappiness.

60. The origin of all evil is greed. (André Maurois)

Greed has taken over the world.

61. It is easier to repress the first greed than to satisfy the next. (Benjamin Franklin)

Greed is also controlled.

62. Greed is a continuous living in poverty for fear of being poor. (Anonymous)

When you are greedy, poverty sleeps next to you.

• You may be interested: “When your work does not satisfy you: psychological factors and solutions”

63. What would I give to be rich? And if I were rich, what would I give? (Nach)

Wealth and greed are sisters.

64. There are three destructive things in life: anger, greed and excessive self-esteem. (Muhammad)

Believing yourself to be better than others produces greed, anger and envy.

65. Greed seems to have permeated our vital principles enough to fight against all hopes of a remedy, but for peace and abundance. (Edmund Pendleton)

It seems that it is more important to fulfill our whims at all costs than to seek peace among all.

66. Things have to be this way because they have always been that way, why not put yourself next to those who can correspond to you? (Miguel Delibes)

You have to find the right path.

67. Materialism and greed is already a way of life for human beings who will soon be consumed by it. (RH Perez)

Man has been miserly throughout his existence.

68. Plant the seed of greed in the infertile soil of stupidity and you will obtain the beautiful flower of shit. (Alfredo de Hoces)

Greed and stupidity do not give good results.

69. And if what I have is enough for me to live, if what is usually left over cannot be possessed, why do I need what I cannot enjoy? (Agustín Moreto)

It refers to what greed does.

70. Beware of an act of greed; It is a bad and incurable disease. (Ptahhotep)

Greed may have no cure, no way back.

71. Ask those who have the passion to accumulate what advantage they enjoy that others do not have. (François de la Rochefoucauld)

Accumulating things creates great chaos.

72. There is nothing so far from letters as greed and concern for money. (Lluís Vives)

Knowledge is a tool to ward off greed and avarice.

• Related article: “Does money bring happiness? A reflection on mental well-being”

73. Behind every name, behind every conflict, if you scratch it a little, the greed for raw materials emerges. (Juan Eslava Galan)

History is riddled with greed and ambition.

74. The money of the stingy is spent twice.

A stingy person always spends more money than he wants.

75. There are few retreats that can escape the penetrating eye of greed. (Thomas Clarkson)

Greed sneaks into any space.

76. He who seeks what is not lost, what he has must lose. (Arciprest of Hita)

There is always loss in every ambition.

77. Greed in all its forms: greed for life, for knowledge, for love, for money; It is what has marked the life of humanity.

Greed is not always bad if we use it for our internal growth.

78. Greed is corrupting of fidelity, honesty and all other virtues. (Sallust)

Greed tarnishes true values.

79. Greed, the stimulus of industry. (David Hume)

The industrial world is based on greed and avarice.

• You may be interested: “How to better manage time at work: 12 tips (and what to avoid)”

80. A miser becomes rich by pretending to be poor; A spendthrift becomes poor by looking rich. (William Shenstone)

Pretend what is not extracted from a life of unhappiness.

81. His everything for the country is everything for the money. (Pablo Hasél)

The greed that corrupts governments.

82. Greed clarifies and captures the essence of the spirit of evolution.

All evolution brings greed.

83. Do not value things that are difficult to obtain, you will see that no one will give in to greed.

If greed were something difficult to achieve, no one would be greedy.

84. Frugality is one thing, greed is another. (Horace)

Many times moderation and greed are opposites.

85. Whoever eats with the devil must need a long spoon.

Greed brings consequences that are difficult to overcome.

86. Disorderly greed, brings double loss.

Clutter brings no benefit.

87. Greed is the most stupid and meaningless passion, and is the surest symptom of a sordid and unhealthy mind. (Pierre Charron)

Greed never guarantees us a calm or stable future.

• Related article: “The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)”

88. Be fearful when others are greedy, and only greedy when others are fearful. (Warren Buffett)

Seek success where others fail.

89. Earn a lot and spend little, if it is miserly and not crazy.

Stingy people have their own financial system.

90. Greed is fear covered in gold. (Paul Eldridge)

A greedy person fills his inner poverty with fear.

91. Without sobriety no one can become rich, and with it very few will be poor. (Samuel Johnson)

Moderation can allow wealth as well as poverty.

92. What must be the wealth that greed, aided by power, cannot exhaust! (James Otis)

It refers to the fact that greed and power go hand in hand.

93. The accumulation of wealth for children is a pretext for greed. (Democritus)

Children should not be taught to be greedy.

94. There is only one honorable greed: that of words. (Constancio Vigil)

Having an accumulation of good words is considered good greed.

95. If you want to destroy greed, you must destroy luxury, which is its father. (Cicero)

Luxurious living makes use of greed.

96. The earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s needs, but not enough to satisfy anyone’s greed (Gandhi)

Gandhi’s struggle was aimed at the liberation of his people and also at the search for a better world for all.

97. Money is not bad but the love of money (Saying)

The love of money per se never brought anything good.

98. It is not the richer who has the most, but the one who needs the least (Saying)

A phrase that we can internalize throughout our lives.

99. The difference between greed and ambition is that the greedy person desires things for which he is not prepared (Habeeb Akande)

A truly interesting categorization of both very similar concepts.

100. Greed brings with it a determined will to do evil (Juan de Mariana)

Without a doubt, an accurate reflection on the phenomenon of greed, delivered by this Spanish theologian and historian.

101. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal distribution of goods. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equitable distribution of misery (Winston Churchill)

Many of Churchill’s phrases have been branded in the Western collective imagination.

102. He who is envious of your achievements is not a friend (Saying)

Feeling joy about other people’s achievements is a sign that we are not greedy at all.

103. The apocalypse will be caused by capitalism, not machines (Stephen Hawkin)

This British physicist was opposed to all types of greed throughout his life.

104. The worst enemy of Capitalism is Capitalism. You are going to fall for it just because it is a philosophy of life that is not sustainable. Capitalism is going to drown alone in its greed (Manu Chao)

A somewhat controversial prediction from this French singer-songwriter.

105. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one possesses (Jimmy Carter)

This American president warned his country of the turning point at which society was at the end of the 70s, when neoliberal policies began in that country.