Sayings about Debt
Debt is beautiful only after it is repaid. ~ Russian Proverbs
A debt is still unpaid, even if forgotten. ~ Irish Proverbs
Rich is he who has no debts, fortunate he who lives without handicap. ~Mongolian Proverbs
A pound’s worth of tears will not settle a penny’s worth of debt. ~ Corsican Proverbs
A debt is always new. ~ Estonian Proverbs
Interest on debts grows without rain. ~ Yiddish Proverbs
One can pay back the loan of gold, but one lies forever in debt to those who are kind. ~ Malay Proverbs
Gold is a debt we can repay, but kindness not till our dying day. ~ Malawian Proverbs
Debts are like children, the smaller they are the louder they scream. ~ Spanish Proverbs
Loans and debts make worry and frets. ~ Traditional Proverb
The benefits you get become the debts you owe to others. ~ Arabian Proverbs
Promises make debts, and debts make promises. ~ Dutch Proverbs
There is a great uproar made about the debt of a poor man. ~ Indian Proverbs
God often pays debts without money. ~ Irish Proverb
The worst kind of poverty is to have many debts. ~ Indian Proverb
Going to bed without dinner is better than waking up in debt. ~ Jamaican Proverbs
Sorrow does not pay any debts. ~ German Proverbs
If you want to sleep well, buy the bed of a bankrupt. ~ Spanish Proverb
Debts make the thief. ~ Malagasy Proverbs
A hundred wagon loads of thoughts will not pay a single ounce of debt. ~ Italian Proverbs
When death comes, the rich man has no money and the poor man no debt. ~ Estonian Proverb
Out of debt, out of danger. ~ Traditional Proverb
My debtor is a worse payer even than I am. ~ Arabian Proverb
An old debt is better than an old grudge. ~ Jamaican Proverb
Debts are like children; the smaller they are the more noise they make. ~ Spanish Proverb
Old debts are never paid, and the new ones get old easily. ~ South American Proverb
Better be in debt than in shame. ~ Croatian Proverbs
Happy is the man without sickness. Rich is the man with no debts. ~ Chinese Proverbs
Talking of an old debt always starts another quarrel. ~ Catalonian Proverbs
Big ships often sail on big debts. ~ Chinese Proverb
Poverty without debt is real wealth. ~ African Proverb
Debts are like women, once you have them you can’t get rid of them. ~ Iranian Proverb
The rich man doesn’t pay, the debtor does. ~ Yiddish Proverb
A dead man pays no debts. ~ Serbian Proverbs
Debt severs love. ~ Afghan Proverbs
Three kinds of people die poor: those who divorce, those who incur debts, and those who move around too much. ~ Senegalese Proverb
Shame is forgotten, debts are not. ~ Chinese Proverb
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them. ~ English Proverbs
He who marries a widow also marries her debts. ~ French Proverbs
An agreement is a kind of debt. ~ Moroccan Proverbs
Three things come into the house uninvited: debts, age, and death. ~ German Proverb
Good manners can be paid for with compliments, but only the sound of money will pay your debts. ~ Chinese Proverb
A small debt makes a man your debtor, a large one your enemy. ~ Irish Proverb
Quotations about Debt
We can pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. ~ Sir John Buchan
Wars are made to make debt. ~ Ezra Pound
A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten. ~ Oscar Wilde
He that dies pays all his debts. ~ William Shakespeare
Lose not thy own for want of asking for it; it will get thee no thanks. ~ Thomas Fuller
Always live within your income, even if you have to borrow money to do so. ~ Josh Billings
Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Some people use one half their ingenuity to get into debt, and the other half to avoid paying it. ~ George D. Prentice
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt. ~ Herbert Hoover
You load 16 tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store. ~ Merle Travis
Debt is the worst poverty. ~ Thomas Fuller
Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of. ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw
Birds have bills too, and they keep on singing. ~ Author Unknown
Interest works night and day in fair weather and in foul. It gnaws at a man’s substance with invisible teeth. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out. ~ Thomas Carlyle
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Our national debt a national blessing. ~ Samuel Wilkerson
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? ~ Adam Smith
This time, instead of moving oceans and healing planets, let’s get our bills in order and pay down the debt so we control our own future. ~ Artur Davis
A promise made is a debt unpaid. ~ Robert W. Service
A man isn’t a man until he meets a payroll. ~ Ivan Shaffer
When you’ve paid your debt to society, you need to be reconnected and re-engaged in society. ~ Tom Vilsack
In the midst of life we are in debt. ~ Ethel Watts Mumford
Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang upon the fatal mesh until the long-legged interest devours him. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due. ~ Will Rogers
Debts and lies are generally mixed together. ~ Francois Rabelais
I would almost rather be in debt constantly than work with horrible people that I hate. ~ Martha Plimpton
Running into debt isn’t so bad. It’s running into creditors that hurts. ~ Author Unknown
A man who owes a little can clear it off in a very little time, and, if he is a prudent man, will; whereas a man, who by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope
If you don’t have some bad loans you are not in business. ~ Paul Volcker
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. ~ Alexander Hamilton
Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due. ~ Will Rogers
The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities. ~ Simone Weil
In a world awash in debt, power shifts to creditors. ~ Fareed Zakaria
You build on cost and you borrow on value. ~ Paul Reichmann
Run not into debt, either for wares sold or money borrowed; be content to want things that are not of absolute necessity, rather than to run up the score. ~ Sir Matthew Hale
Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt. ~ Henrik Ibsen
Debt is the secret foe of thrift, as vice and idleness are its open enemies. ~ James H. Aughey
Energetic action on debt would make a radical difference to the prospects of many of the poorest countries in the world, at no practical cost to creditor countries. ~ Kenneth Clarke
If I owe Smith ten dollars, and God forgives me, that doesn’t pay Smith. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll
Many delight more in giving of presents than in paying their debts. ~ Sir Philip Sidney
Bankruptcy is a sacred state, a condition beyond conditions, as theologians might say, and attempts to investigate it are necessarily obscene, like spiritualism. One knows only that he has passed into it and lives beyond us, in a condition not ours. ~ John Updike
Paying of debts is, next to the grace of God, the best means in the world to deliver you from a thousand temptations to sin and vanity. ~ Patrick Delany
The nation is prosperous on the whole, but how much prosperity is there in a hole? ~ Will Rogers
It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts — you have no idea of the pain it gives one. ~ Lord Byron
A church debt is the devil’s salary. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Never, be argued out of your soul, never be argued out of your honor, and never be argued into believing that soul and honor do not run a terrible risk if you limp into life with the load of a debt on your shoulders. ~ Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people. ~ Wendell Phillips
Money is a poor man’s credit card. ~ Marshall McLuhan
When I was born I owed twelve dollars. ~ George S. Kaufman
It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range effects of our national stupidity. ~ Frank Zappa
If someone takes your time, it is the only debt that can’t be repaid. ~ Author Unknown
The man who never has money enough to pay his debts has too much of something else. ~ James Lendall Basford
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? ~ Adam Smith
Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas. ~ Earl Wilson
Science does not know its debt to imagination. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding in which you put your money in your pants pocket and give your coat to your creditors. ~ Joey Adams
Debt is the slavery of the free. ~ Croft M. Pentz
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience. ~ Ambrose Bierce
We at Chrysler borrow money the old fashioned way. We pay it back. ~ Lee Iacocca
Buying on the installment plan makes the months shorter and the years longer. ~ Author Unknown
A small debt makes a debtor; a heavy one makes an enemy. ~ Syrus
Credit buying is much like being drunk; the buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after. ~ Dr. Joyce Brothers
A man’s indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude. ~ Ruth Benedict
We can pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. ~ Sir John Buchan
You can take a chance with any man who pays his bills on time. ~ Terence
To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Pull in your belt, spend less, and reduce debt. ~ Ray Dalio
If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments. ~ Earl Wilson
Pay as you go is the philosopher’s stone. ~ G. Randolf
Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity. ~ Samuel Johnson
This time, instead of moving oceans and healing planets, let’s get our bills in order and pay down the debt so we control our own future. ~ Artur Davis
Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay. ~ Charles Dickens
Every dollar that is printed should not represent a debt to private bankers. It should represent an investment potential in the common good, in the common needs of our country. ~ Cynthia McKinney
Small debts are like small gun shots; they are rattling around us on all sides and one can scarcely escape being wounded. Large debts are like canons, they produce a loud noise, but are of little danger. ~ Samuel Johnson
But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay. ~ Euripides
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend. ~ William Shakespeare
Industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Wars are made to make debt. ~ Ezra Pound
The 1980s are to debt what the 1960s were to sex. The 1960s left a hangover. So will the 1980s. ~ James Grant
If it isn’t the sheriff, it’s the finance company; I’ve got more attachments on me than a vacuum cleaner. ~ John Barrymore
A man in debt is so far a slave. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never run into debt, not if you can find anything else to run into. ~ Josh Billings
Who goes a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. ~ Thomas Tusser
If one wants to get out and stay out of debt he should act his wage. ~ Author Unknown
Most men remember obligations, but are not often likely to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent. ~ William Gilmore Simms
At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about “a public debt being a public blessing”; that the stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. ~ Thomas Jefferson
A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it. ~ Victor Hugo
Man was lost if he went to a usurer, for the interest ran faster than a tiger upon him. ~ Pearl S. Buck
A mortgage casts a shadow on the sunniest field. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll
Debt is a prolific mother of folly and of crime. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Debt is to man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave. ~ Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton
People should watch out for three things: avoid a major addiction, don’t get so deeply into debt that it controls your life, and don’t start a family before you’re ready to settle down. ~ James Taylor
You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. ~ Daniel Hannan
You know it is not my interest to pay the principal, or my principal to pay the interest. ~ Richard Brinsley Sheridan
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. ~ William Shakespeare
To John I owed great obligation; but John, unhappily, thought fit to publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit. ~ Matthew Prior
Debts are nowadays like children begot with pleasure, but brought forth in pain. ~ Moliere
It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creditors have better memories than debtors; and creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Man hazards the condition and loses the virtues of freeman, in proportion as he accustoms his thoughts to view without anguish or shame his lapse into the bondage of debtor. ~ Lord Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
I owe you one. ~ George Colman
The more we get out of the world the less we leave, and in the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our own survival. ~ Norbert Wiener