“I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement in the U.S. that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.” – Christopher Hitchens
Most collections of greed quotes are soundly against the concept of greed. Why, then, are we presenting quotes in favor of one of the seven deadly sins? It’s not because we get off on controversy.
Greed, whether you like it or not, is one of our inextricable impulses which makes us all human. Whether we would become better or worse off without greed is moot. You could no sooner rid people of greed than you could rid them of vertebrae or blood cells.
Quashing greed outright would necessitate the creation of some very powerful authority – one which would be all too happy to quash other impulses which it deems disadvantageous to society (or more likely itself). Perhaps this authority could seek to undo the damage caused by greed by heavily taxing wealth. Of course, once you create an authority that has the power to seize others’ property, you can be very certain the greediest people on the planet will force themselves to run it. Greed is like gravity.
By all means, be as selfless as you like. Donate the electronic device you’re currently staring at to charity, and devote your life to helping the needy. But do not place fetters on people who are driven to become rich. While they may create harm, they also innovate, employ, and create things which we would all become poorer without.
Humanity hasn’t clung to this ball of astral soot for tens of thousands of years because our drives are somehow out of synch with our surroundings. The concept of “gimme that” runs deep, and it serves an indispensable purpose. “Greed,” as the man once said, “is good.”
Best Greed Quotes
We assume you want even more greed quotes, greedy person that you are. Why not settle for some more Ayn Rand quotes so long as you’re dawdling around on the internet?
Who is Ayn Rand? Born to a middle class Russian-Jewish family in 1905, Rand was treated to a front row seat to the wonders of communism in action. Rand fled with her family to the Crimea following the “liberation” of her father’s pharmacy but ultimately returned to Saint Petersburg where she could attend university when she wasn’t busy starving. Due to her life experiences, Ayn Rand quotes are some of the most thought-provoking in the world.
Hailed as the godfather of conservative libertarianism, Milton Friedman quotes openly attacked Keynesianism in an era when most economists widely accepted its fundamental premises. Friedman won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.”
Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s great treatise on Objectivism, individualism, and reason. Don’t have time to read it? Check out the best Atlas Shrugged quotes here.
Are you tired of looters denigrating the world’s best economic system? Here are our favorite capitalism quotes to help get their screeching out of your head.