Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Misers
And were it not that they are loath to lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. II. Memb. 3. Subsec. 12.
A mere madness, to live like a wretch, and die rich.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. II. Memb. 3. Subsec. 13.
If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.
Benj. Franklin—The Whistle.
Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill;
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still.
Goldsmith—The Traveller.
Quærit, et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti.
The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains.
Horace—Ars Poetica. 170.
The unsunn’d heaps
Of miser’s treasures.
Milton—Comus. L. 398.
Abiturus illuc priores abierunt,
Quid mente cæca torques spiritum?
Tibi dico, avare.
Since you go where all have gone before, why do you torment your disgraceful life with such mean ambitions, O miser?
Phædrus—Fables. IV. 19. 16.
He sat among his bags, and, with a look
Which hell might be ashamed of, drove the poor
Away unalmsed; and midst abundance died—
Sorest of evils!—died of utter want.
Pollok—Course of Time. Bk. III. L. 276.
’Tis strange the miser should his cares employ
To gain those riches he can ne’er enjoy;
Is it less strange the prodigal should waste
His wealth to purchase what he ne’er can taste?
Pope—Moral Essays. Ep. IV. L. 1.
Decrepit miser; base, ignoble wretch;
I am descended of a gentler blood.
Henry VI. Pt. I. Act V. Sc. 4. L. 7.
Tam deest avaro quod habet, quam quod non habet.
The miser is as much in want of what he has, as of what he has not.
Syrus—Maxims.