Adam Smith
Philosopher, Economist
"No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money."
Scarcity quotes
Scarcity
83 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Robert Anton Wilson
Author, Philosopher
"We live in an age of artificial scarcity, maintained by ignorance and fear."
Edmund Burke
Philosopher, Politician
"And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them."
Brigham Young
Religious Leader
"If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives?"
Julian Simon
Economist
"There is only one important resource which has shown a trend of increasing scarcity rather than increasing abundance. That resource is the most important of all—human beings. . . . [An] increase in the price of peoples’ services is a clear indication that people are becoming more scarce even though there are more of us."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside scarcity — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Scarcity quotes (page 1 of 5)
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"In abundance prepare for scarcity."
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"The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority."
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"I think we have to be not so afraid of scarcity. We have to be willing to give away all things."
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"The cause of poverty is not scarcity. It is fear and small thinking."
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"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise."
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"In a highly critical, scarcity-based world, everyone's afraid to fail."
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"The first step toward discarding a scarcity mentality involves giving thanks for everything that you have."
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"Learn to sustain yourselves; lay up grain and flour, and save it against a day of scarcity."
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"For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It's enough. I'm enough. My kids are enough."
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"If you're going to buy a real book, a paper book, there better be a good reason. Perhaps scarcity is one of those reasons."
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"It's human nature to quit when it hurts. But it's that reflex that creates scarcity."
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"If you want a fulfilled life, stop thinking about wealthy people and what they have and you don't. Stop thinking from a place of scarcity."
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"When people are frightened about going hungry and paying their mortgages, a scarcity model begins to prevail; they fear someone else will get their piece of the pie."
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"I did have a lot of lack, but I never experienced it. I grew up in the east side of Detroit, in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. Even growing up in an orphanage, I never woke up saying, "I'm an orphan again today, isn't this terrible? Poor me.""
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"Life management begins with mind management. The quality of your life is influenced by the quality of your thoughts. Your thoughts do form your world. Scarce thoughts create a life of scarcity. Thoughts of abundance lead to abundant circumstances."
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"When love exists, nothing else matters, not life’s predicaments, not the fury of the years, not a physical winding down or scarcity of opportunity."
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"The scarce water of Dune is an exact analog of oil scarcity. CHOAM is OPEC."
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"The universe is continually at its work of restructuring itself at a higher, more complex, more elegant level. The novelty, the new, more complex order, doesn't emerge from the present in a steady stream, nor at all places at the same rate. It comes, as all things do, in rhythmic waves; there will always be times and places of scarcity and stagnation and retrogression. Still, the long-term direction is clear. The intention of the universe is evolution."
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"It is deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another."
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"Common fluency of speech in many men and most women is owing to a scarcity of matter."
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