Thank you Blake for leaving your comment on my blog. You are the first student to do so. I am impressed that you spent part of your summer reading Atlas Shrugged. In your honor, I am creating a new posting asking readers to post their favorite quote on greed, with appropriate citation.
Blake said,
This summer I read Atlas Shrugged, and the main theme was that greed is a must. That in a society that thrives and succeeds ultimately is the society where people keep wanting and perusing the best. It talks of how if you keep making people successes harm them, by taxing them or saying it is unfair that you are that prosperous compared to other people in the same profession, people will loose motivation to keep working. Therefore technology and society is gone because the innovators and the leaders of the world disappear. It went along with Aristotle's theory that the most unfair thing to do is to try to make unequal things equal. Therefore, if you are looking for a society that can gain the most from its members I believe that the only way to gain this is through a certain type of greed. People should decide what to do with their money and with the profits of their work. The book keeps going back to two main points that money is the root of all good, and a quote from John Galt "I swear I will never live for the sake of another man, and will never make another man live for mine." It has thus convinced me that this would be the society to aim for, and I believe that greed is a great motivator.
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1 year ago
I will add a quote by the greatest of all economists, Adam Smith from the Wealth of Nations.
ReplyDelete“Justice [the human virtue of not harming others]…is the main pillar that supports the whole building. If justice is removed, the great fabric of human society which seems to have been under the darling care of Nature must in a moment crumble into atoms….Men, though naturally sympathetic, feel so little for others with whom they have no particular connection in comparison to what they feel for themselves. The misery of one who is merely their fellow creature is of so little importance to them in comparison to even a small convenience of their own. They have it so much in their power to hurt him and may have so many temptations to do so that if the principle of justice did not stand up within them in his defense and overawe them into a respect for his innocence, they would like wild beasts be ready to fly upon him at all times. Under such circumstances a man would enter an assembly of others as he enters a den of lions.”
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology," "We've seen the triumph of greed over integrity. The triumph of speculation over value creation. The triumph of the short term over long term, sustainable growth. The fact is that Gordon Gekko wasn't tamed in 1987 - he was simply ignored."
ReplyDeleteFrom Mike Campenni at McLennan Community College:
ReplyDeleteI heard quite often in an old cowboy version, but I later found out that it came from Mahatma Ghandi (or maybe he got it from a cowboy!) I may be a word or two off— The Earth provides enough to satisfy men’s needs, but not satisfy most men’s greed!
From Nancy Boyens at McLennnan Community College
ReplyDeleteProverbs 28:22. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
Note to be outdone, Moses sent me this from Mt. Sinai University, Jehovah told me to write, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
ReplyDeleteFrom Joseph Heller in Catch 22, Major Major’s father was a…God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn’t earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major’s father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.”
ReplyDeleteAnother quote by Adam Smith,
ReplyDeleteIt is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school we had to learn this poem....and basically i got out of it....That you will get what you desirve in life....if you are ugly then bad things will happen to you too, or they should, but dont get me wrong, things happen everyone has bad lucky
Demand and value:
A very poor man may be said in some sense to have a demand for a coach and six; he might live to have it; but his demand is not an effectual demand, and the commodity can never be brought to market in order to satisfy it.
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ReplyDeleteHere’s a great quote. (I came across it in Tom Friedman’s column in NYT today.)
ReplyDelete“Money ... has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. . . . Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Nicely said, don't you think?
I received this quote from Kent.
It's from “Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” by Charles Mackay. It was first published in London in 1841!!!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. (Don't know who that line belongs to.)
--Kent
Here’s a great quote. (I came across it in Tom Friedman’s column in NYT today.)
ReplyDelete“Money ... has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. . . . Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Nicely said, don't you think?
It's from “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” by Charles Mackay. It was first published in London in 1841!!!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. (Don't know who that line belongs to.)
--Kent
This may not be exactly what you had in mind when you asked for our favorite quote about greed, but this really is my favorite. It helps me remember to not be greedy. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" --Jesus, Mark 8:36.
ReplyDeleteAny so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment. --Mark Twain
ReplyDeleteYou say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon
ReplyDeleteI think this is the truth. You should learn to accept what you have and be grateful. I believe it would make life more meaningful.
"Hell has three gates: lust, anger and greed."
ReplyDeleteBahgavad Gita quotes.
"The more you have, the happier you will be."
ReplyDeleteI believe that money is the root to all evil.
"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”
ReplyDelete-Eric Fromm
Greed. The ultimate evil, yet the great motivator. I have less, I want more. Now I have more than I had, but I've taught myself to not be settled for what I had so I want more. Oops I have more now than before, I can get more than that surely. Hey! John, you have more than me, I want what you have. I'll kill you and take yours! Yes now I have everything. I wonder if I can make more out of everything.......?????
ReplyDeleteOk, Ok, a little too dramatic. But really I do think that too much greed is a terrible evil. I know that life is better with a little more, but there is a reason it is considered sin.
So goodness, I didn't read the instructions...Oops!
ReplyDeleteHere is my quote:
Proverbs 15:27 (New International Version)
27 A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.
“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”
ReplyDeleteP. J. O'Rourke quotes (American political commentator,Journalist, Writer and Humorist, b.1947)
For truly, as it says in 1 Timothy 6:10 "The love of money is the root of all evil". The desire for money is perpetuated by the desire for more power...Those who have the gold make the rules...it is an insatiable vicious circle.
One of my favorite quotes on greed is, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers - not because you mus, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve" 1 Peter 5:2. I see greed as more a problem than an incentive. If our motivation is only for ourselves, then what have we truly accomplished?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quote on greed is "Ther are many things in life that we would throw away if we weren't so afraid that others might pick them up."-Oscar Wilde. This not only addresses the sin of greed but of jealousy as well. This is so true in almost anything that you apply it to. Makes you think, doesn't it?
ReplyDelete"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
ReplyDelete-Frederick Keonig
“Not everything you want is everything you really need.
The standard of society is motivated by greed."
-unknown
"Avarice, the spur of industry"
ReplyDeleteDavid Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher, economist and historian.
Greed has always been seen as good for the economy by those who study it carefully. People motivated by greed work harder to make more money. This boosts our economy, and since greed is never satisfied our economy must be ever-growing. While greed is all right in moderation, in excess, it can drive people or companies to crimes (remember Enron?). So I would conclude that greed in and of itself is not bad, but must be kept in check
"Consumer culture, today's inheritor by default of materialism's gospel of human betterment, is unembarassed by the ephemeral nature of the goals that inspire it. For the small minority of people who can afford them, the benefits it offers are immediate, and the rationale unapologetic. Emboldened by the breakdown of traditional morality, the advance of the new creed is essentially no more than the triumph of animal impulse, as instinctive and blind as appetite, released at long last from the restraints of supernatural sanctions. Its most obvious casualty has been language. Tendencies once universally castigated as moral failings mutate into necessities of social progress. Selfishness becomes a prized commercial resource; falsehood reinvents itself as public information; perversions of various kinds unabashedly claim the status of civil rights. Under appropriate euphemisms, greed, lust, indolence, pride - even violence - acquire not merely broad acceptance but social and economic value. Ironically, as words have been drained of meaning, so have the very material comforts and acquisitions for which truth has been casually sacrificed."
ReplyDeleteheavy heavy heavy, whether you agree with it or not..but incredibly well-written nonetheless..