“Interest works night and day in fair weather and in foul. It gnaws at a man's substance with invisible teeth.”
“The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”
“There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out.”
“It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.”
“Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.”
“Nowadays people can be divided into three classes -- the haves the have-nots and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves”
“A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.”
“Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after.”
“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.”
“I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Small debts are like small gun shot; 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.”
“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.”
“One day Donald Trump will discover that he is owned by Lutheran Brotherhood and must re negotiate his debt load with a committee of silent Norwegians who don't understand why anyone would pay more than $120.00 for a suit.”
“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.”