Cool Quotes

“Making money isn’t hard in itself… What’s hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one’s life to.”
–Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It’s God’s will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt.”
–Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, Houston, TX

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
–Epictetus

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”
–Will Smith

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“Success is determined by taking the hand you were dealt and utilizing it to the very best of your ability.”
–Ty Boyd

“You load sixteen tons, what do you get. Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”
–Merle Travis, “Sixteen Tons” 1946

“Things are never as bad as they seem to the pessimist and never as good as they seem to the optimist.”
–David Oreck

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
–John Lennon

“Success is defined by oneself by setting attainable goals and reaching them.”
—Richard Bayha

“The credit card companies have put the loan sharks out of business.”
—Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

“Banks made mistakes in lending, which got the economy in this whole mess. Their latest ingenious decision is to get rid of their best customers and their most profitable accounts.”
—Scott Bilker

“When my girlfriend asks for a bracelet made out of paper, I’ll know paper is as good as gold!”
—James Dines

“Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just money or things. Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of money or things.”
—Eric Butterworth

“If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”
—Andrew Jackson

“There is no class of people in the world, who have such good memories as creditors.”
—P.T. Barnum

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”
—John F. Kennedy

“You don’t need no credit card to ride this train.”
–Huey Lewis

“Life will pay whatever price you ask of it.”
—Anthony Robbins

“Those who understand interest earn it; those who don’t, pay it.”
—Unknown

“New Rules for the Game of Life: (1) If I give my best effort, then I am successful; (2) If I don’t try, then I have failed; (3) If I learn something new, then I have succeeded; (4) If I am having fun, then I can access more of my abilities; (5) If I take action consistently, then I increase my chances of success.”
—Kent Healy, CoolStuffMedia.com

“I will help you as long as you help yourself. When you stop helping yourself, I stop helping you.”
—Aaron Kinney Sr.

“Action is the foundational key to all success. Knowing is not enough! Lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know.”
—Tony Robbins

“I paid the bank note, the car note, an’ yes, I paid the ‘phone bill too. An’ then I turned around an’ I found that the house note’s due. Well, I’d love to take you out like I said I would, honey, But there’s too much month at the end of the money.”
—Marty Stuart, Country Musician

Talking about debt collectors…”One guy called me everyday last week. I said, ‘Look, every month I put everyone I owe into a hat, I pick three names, I pay those people. And if you call me one more time I’m taking you out of the hat.’ They all want to be in the hat.”
—Margaret Smith, Comedian

“God’s dream is that you have an abundance, that you be totally out of debt, pay your house off, pay your credit cards off, and have so much overflow that you can be a blessing to everyone around you!”
—Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, Houston, TX

“Stretch your leg only as far as your blanket.”
—Turkish Proverb

“God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.”
—Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, Houston, TX

“Wisest is he who knows he knows not.”
—Socrates

“Credit card companies have been using unfair and deceptive practices to trick Americans into signing agreements they can’t afford.
—Barack Obama

“Every moment wasted looking back keep us from looking forward.”
—Hilary Clinton

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt; just how we play the hand.”
—Randy Pausch

“Credit-Card-Itis: A documented syndrome resulting in pain in the rear that runs down the thigh due to pressure on a nerve from a wallet stuffed with credit cards.”
—New England Medical Journal, 1966

“A mistake is a future benefit, the full value of which is yet to be realized.”
—Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera

“When you’re driving, your foot is connected to your wallet. The faster you step down, the more money comes out of your wallet.”
—David Champion, Director of Automobile testing for Consumer Reports

“If medical science continues to prolong life, some of us may eventually pay off the mortgage.”
—Jonathan Pond

“It saves a lot of trouble if, instead of having to earn money and save it, you can just go and borrow it.”
—Winston Churchill

“O money, money, money. I’m not necessarily one of those who think thee holy, but I often stop to wonder how thou canst go out so fast when thou comest in so slowly.”
—Ogden Nash

“I have never been in a situation where having money made it worse.”
—Clinton Jones

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
—Dale Carnegie, author

“The way to learn to do things is to do things. Success teaches how to succeed. Begin with determination to succeed, and the work is half done already.”
—Mark Twain

“Money doesn’t always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.”
—Hobart Brown

“The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”
—William James

“It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It’s God’s will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt.”
—Joel Osteen

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
—Thomas Jefferson

“One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.”
—Malayan Proverb

“A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.”
—Robert Frost

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
—Albert Einstein

“If you have a computer, then you should be using financial software.”
—Scott Bilker

“Be sure you know a person well before you vouch for his credit. Better refuse than to suffer later.”
—Proverbs 11:15 (The Living Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, 1971)

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.”
—Buddhist proverb

“A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”
—Fortune Cookie

“You feel stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.”
—Unknown

“The only way to beat the banks is to make them fight for your business!”
—Scott Bilker

“Divorce sucks. Let me tell you, after five years of marriage for me it is devastating to have the person with the good credit move out.”
—Rich Vos, comedian

“Before deciding what you want to do, I would ask how you want to live.”
—Scott Bilker

“There’s a fine line between, ‘oh, that’s cute’ and ‘I have to have that now.'”
—Larissa S. Bilker

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”
—Aristotle

“Creating a budget is much easier than sticking to one.”
—Scott Bilker

“Never use the word ‘can’t’ because you can, you just haven’t done it yet.”
—Grandmaster Art Beins

“Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.”
—Robert F. Kennedy

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
—Wimpy in Popeye

“My very first credit card–today I’m a woman!”
—Miley Stewart (Hannah Montana)

“Restless is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress.”
—Thomas A. Edison

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax.”
—Albert Einstein

“One decision can change your life forever.”
—Tony Robbins

“To a normal person, $10 million will seem like enough. But anyone who thinks that’s enough is not the type that can acquire that much in the first place.”
—James K. Glassman, magazine publisher

“Bad questions get bad answers.”
—Matt Fisher, Singer/Songwriter (watch the video)

“I’ve traveled all over the world and America is the easiest place to get rich.”
—Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

“Forget the fat lady–it ain’t over until the check clears!”
—Scott Bilker

“The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.”
—Tom Waits, singer-songwriter

“Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt

“Instead of focusing on the amount of money lacking in your budget, focus on what you DO have: a willing spirit, an imagination filled with bright ideas, people who care about you and can perhaps help you in some way. These are the things that will enable you to do almost anything.”
—Phil Keoghan, No Opportunity Wasted

“The greatest revelation of my generation is the discovery that by changing the inner attitudes of your mind, you can change the outer aspect of your life.”
—William James

“Lend less than you owe.”
—William Shakespeare

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson on Perseverance

“All things are difficult before they are easy.”
—John Norley

“I don’t want to see a game of checkers; I want to see a game of chess.”
—Grandmaster Art Beins

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
—Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D.

“Living modestly and being happy with what you have–therein lies the success of saving.”
—Scott Bilker

“Financial success is having control over your finances rather than having your finances in control of you.”
—Scott Bilker

“If you would like to know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.”
—Benjamin Franklin

“Live every day with an attitude of gratitude.”
—Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, Houston, TX

“Organization is the key to success with anything.”
—Scott Bilker

“Money is just the poor man’s credit card.”
—Marshall McLuhan

“People are not persuaded by what we say, but rather by what they understand.”
—Fortune Cookie

“If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. But if you schedule it, it’s real.”
—Anthony Robbins

“If you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging.”
—Unknown

“Control your destiny, or someone else will!”
—Jack Welch, CEO of GE

“Change is inevitable; struggle is an option.”
—Unknown

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.”
—Jane Austen

“You can have my credit card, baby, but keep your red hot fingers off of my heart, lady.”
—George Michael

“Never spend your money before you have it.”
—Thomas Jefferson

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”
—Donald Trump

“Too many men work on parts of things; doing a job to completion satisfies me.”
—Dick Proenneke

“If you look at what you do not have in life, you don’t have anything. If you look at what you have in life, you have everything.”
—Unknown

“If you control your credit cards, you control your future.”
—Scott Bilker

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.”
—Ken Hakuta

“Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
—Benjamin Franklin

Albert Einstein said, “in the middle of adversity lies opportunity.” It has also been state “you can tell the size of the goal by the number of obstacles you have overcome.”

“Lack of money is the root of all evil.”
—George Bernard Shaw

“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”
—Publilius Syrus

“Borrow money from pessimists—they don’t expect it back.”
—Steven Wright

“You put your signature on everything you do in life.”
—Grandmaster Art Beins

“Work your plan and plan to work. You only fail if you quit.”
—Unknown

“The biggest obstacle in life is yourself…overcome it and you will achieve the greatest accomplishment of all.”
—Grandmaster Art Beins

“You don’t have to be rich, you just have to know where you stand.”
—Larissa S. Bilker

“Every family has a choice of keeping up with the neighbors or the creditors.”
—Unknown

“While shopping, you’ll find that it’s far easier to put something in the basket than it is to remove it from the basket.”
—Scott Bilker

“Wealthier is healthier.”
—John Stossell, author of Give me a break

“Even though I have no debt, lack of funds is initially why so many people can’t pull through with their dreams, and I am not prepared to accept that.”
—Sarah Pieper, 15-years-old DebtSmart Reader (Australia)

“Like other forms of stealing, identity theft leaves the victim poor and feeling terribly violated.”
—President George W. Bush

“You can’t really have a happy life without having a healthy financial life.”
—Scott Bilker

“One who restrains his appetites avoids debt.”
—Chinese proverb

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”
—Ronald Reagan

“The only preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.”
—Author Unknown

“Winning isn’t everything. The will to win is everything.”
—Vince Lombardi

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”
—Carol Burnett

“There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
—Sam Walton

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
—Mark Twain

“If you don’t know where you’re going, then any path will get you there.”
—Sioux proverb

“I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. And I had no idea I could be this happy without incurring credit card debt.”
—Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde 2” (Reese Witherspoon)

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it.”
—Albert Einstein

“Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
—Conrad Hilton (1887-1979)
Founder of Hilton Hotels

“Lack of money is the root of all evil.”
—George Bernard Shaw

“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.”
—Henry Ford 1863-1947 American Industrialist

MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING: “But it’s reasonably close to oxygen!”
—Zig Ziglar

“My credit is horrible. They won’t even take my cash!”
—May Gillian (Chris Rock) in “Head of State”

“Work is a surefire money-making scheme.”
—Dave Ramsey, author of “The Total Money Makeover”

“i hate those people who love to tell you
money is the root of all that kills
they have never been poor
they have never had the joy of a
welfare christmas”
—Everclear, “i will buy you a new life,” 1997

“My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.”
—Errol Flynn

“If thou lend money to any of My people,…thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest.”
—Exodus 22:24

“In times of change, the learners inherit the earth and the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
—Eric Hoffer

“Insurance companies make money when you pay them; not when they pay you.”
—Scott Bilker, creator of DebtSmart.com

“Most choices are driven by immediate results.”
—Dr. Phil

“We can’t stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.”
—Jonathan Kabat-Zinn

“The passion for money is never fickle.”
—Mason Cooley

“If there is no consequence, there is no change.”
—Jen Macedo (3/1/03)

“If you have an understanding of your passion, you have an understanding of life.”
—Matt Fisher, Matt Fisher & the Telephone Junkies

“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
—To The Man in The Arena, by Theodore Roosevelt (1910)

“You have to think outside of conventional wisdom to break through your debt.”
—Dave Hoffman, 1/13/2003

“Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway.”
—Robert Anthony

“Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”
—Eddie Rickenbacher

“I urge you to plan your work and then work your plan. I urge you to let no obstacle get in your way of accomplishing your plan. Either go around it, over it, or through it. But don’t turn around and go back. You do not retreat. You do not quit.”
—Alan N. Canton, Author, Publisher, Software Engineer, Adams-Blake Publishing, Fair Oaks, CA

“Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of our economy. It has been the driving force of our recovery. Yet there are warning signs I won’t ignore, and I hope the Congress doesn’t ignore either. Many Americans live in constant and increasing personal debt, with credit card bills so heavy they often cannot pay much more than the monthly minimum. Millions of citizens spend their entire adult lives living paycheck-to-paycheck, never getting a chance to save for their children’s education or their own retirement. Americans today are paying about a third of their income in taxes. All of this puts pressure on family budget, and therefore clouds our economic future.”
—George W. Bush, President (1/7/2003)

Below from White House Briefing on 1/6/2003:
Q: Isn’t it the assumption with the stimulus that in order for it to have any short-term stimulative effect that people will actually have to go out and spend this money? Isn’t it a real possibility that a lot of these people who are getting back $1,000, which is less than they owe on their credit cards, that they will actually have to – that they will actually go out and spend that money, and not use it to just pay off debt?
“I think what you just heard, with all due respect, is exactly why some American people look at Washington and say Washington doesn’t get it. A thousand dollars is a tremendous amount of money to most Americans. It’s not just an amount of money on people’s credit card — that it’s smaller than what’s on their credit card. That’s real money. That’s a lot of real money to a lot of Americans. And the American people feel that it’s their money and that they’re over-taxed. And I think that anybody who hears that they may get $1,000 of their money back is very appreciative for it.”
—Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary (1/6/2003)

“Failure is never final and success is never-ending. Success is a journey, not a destination.”
—Robert Schuller

“When you give more than people expect, you get more than you expected.”
—J. Warren McClure, philanthropist and author of “Freedom to Achieve”

“The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes.”
—Benjamin Disraeli

“I say ‘try’; if we never try, we shall never succeed.”
—Abraham Lincoln

“I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”
—E.E. Cummings (Modern American Poet, 1894-1962)

Jonathan Kent: “Clark Kent, you stole from us!”
Clark Kent: “No, I used your credit cards!”
(Clark goes on a buying spree in Metropolis at his parents’ expense after being exposed to red kryptonite.)
—WB’s, “Smalleville,” aired 10/15/02

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.”
—William Jennings Bryan

“When you change what you believe, you change what you do.”
—Dr. Spencer Johnson, page 65, “Who Moved My Cheese?”

“When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.”
—Dr. Spencer Johnson, page 56, “Who Moved My Cheese?”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
—Albert Einstein

“Worrying about it (your financial situation) won’t help, only action will!”
— Larissa S. Bilker, 2002

“The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”
—William James

“In times of distress, strengthen your heart.”
—Samuel ha-Nagid

“It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”
—Sheryl Crow “Soak Up the Sun” (C’mon C’mon)

“Champions believe in themselves, even when others do not.”
—Unknown

“Borrowing money from a friend is like sex—it completely changes the relationship!”
—George Castanza (Seinfeld)

“Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: “I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.””
—Mark Twain

“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”
—Mark Twain

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.”
—Budda

“It’s (the Metropolis Mall) like some kind of temple.”
—Wonder Woman
“Yes, for those who worship their credit cards.”
—Superman (Clark Kent, Kal-El) Justice League 1/21/02

“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
—Confucius

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
—Ben Franklin

“Neither a borrower or lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
—Shakespeare

“Do not be made a beggar by banqueting upon borrow,
when thou hast nothing in thy purse:
for thou shall lie in wait for thine own life,
and be talked on.”
—Bible Quote

“Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.”
—Henrik Ibsen; Quote from A Doll’s House

“The surest way to ruin a man who doesn’t know how to handle money is to give him some.”
—George Bernard Shaw

“Dreading that climax of all human ills,
The inflammation of one’s weekly bills.”
—Lord Byron

“It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts;
you have no idea of the pain it gives one.”
—Lord Bryon

“Who goeth a borrowing
Goeth a sorrowing.”
—The Farmer’s Daily Diet Quote

“The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.”
—Quote from “The Two Races of Men”

“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.”
—Les Miserables Quote

“A good debt is not as good as no debt.”
“Free from debt is free from care.”
“One who restrains his appetites avoids debt.”
—Chinese Proverbs

“There’s also consumer debt, the credit card debt that burdens many of the working families in America. Yes, we talk about national debt, and we’re paying a lot down. But you’re fixing to hear me tell you part of the remedy for people who have got a lot of credit card debt is to make sure people get some of their own money back.”
—President George W. Bush 3/9/2001