John Adams
Founding Father, Politician
"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt."
Debt quotes
Debt
703 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright, Critic
"A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody."
Prince
Musician, Singer, Songwriter
"I am a firm believer in reincarnation for people who either have more work to do or have so much debt to pay back that they have to be here."
Aldous Huxley
Novelist, Essayist
"Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence - those are the three pillars of Western prosperity."
George R. R. Martin
Novelist, Screenwriter
"A Lannister always pays his debts."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside debt — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Debt quotes (page 1 of 36)
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"My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim."
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"No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence."
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"Worrying is paying interest on a debt you might not even owe."
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"The national debt has given rise to joint stock companies, to dealings in negotiable effects of all kinds, and to agiotage , in a word to stock-exchange gambling and the modern bankocracy ."
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"A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others."
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"Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt."
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"Wars are made to make debt."
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"Terrorism, War & Bankruptcy are caused by the privatization of money, issued as a debt and compounded by interest."
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"I can scarcely contemplate a greater calamity that could befall this country, than be loaded with a debt exceeding their ability ever to discharge. If this be a just remark, it is unwise and improvident to vest in the general government a power to borrow at discretion, without any limitation or restriction."
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"Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency."
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"The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much."
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"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer."
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"In most cases, when people make more money, they get deeper in debt. This is why money alone does not make you rich."
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"Once again, the 90/10 rule of money applies - 10% of the borrowers in the world use debt to get richer - 90% use debt to get poorer."
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"I do not intend to spare myself, not to avoid emotions or difficulties. I don't care much whether I live a longer or shorter time... the world concerns me only in so far as I feel a certain debt toward it, because I have walked on this earth for thirty years, and out of gratitude I want to leave some souvenir."
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"In this business, if you don't pay your debts you're finished."
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"To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones."
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"Gratitude is a debt which usually goes on accumulating like blackmail; the more you pay, the more is exacted."
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"I try never to worry in general. Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due."
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"A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last."
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