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“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

– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

– Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

– Milton Friedman, A Friedman doctrine – The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits

– Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

– Winston Churchill

– Milton Friedman

– Calvin Coolidge

– Arthur Brooks

– Arthur Brooks

– Thomas Sowell

– Oscar Wilde

– George Sand, Indiana

– Stanley Weiser & Oliver Stone, Wall Street (Okay, we know this one was written as a criticism of greed, but we’re pretty sure Oliver Stone cashes all his checks.)

That damn ill-natur’d baneful vice,
Was slave to Prodigality,
That Noble Sin; whilst Luxury
Employ’d a Million of the Poor,
And odious Pride a Million more.
Envy it self, and Vanity
Were Ministers of Industry;
Their darling Folly, Fickleness
In Diet, Furniture, and Dress,
That strange ridic’lous Vice, was made
The very Wheel, that turn’d the Trade.”
– Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees

There is nothing like a newly minted pound!
Everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker
It’s accountancy that makes the world go round!”
– Eric Idle, Money Song

– Christopher Guest et al., This Is Spinal Tap

– Orange Lantern Corps Oath

– Mel Brooks et al., Spaceballs

– Thomas Sowell
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?