Ralph Waldo Emerson

The virtue in most request is conformity.

The years teach much what the days never knew.

See only that thou work and thou canst not escape the reward.

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.

The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.

Debt is the secret foe of thrift, as vice and idleness are its open enemies.

A Debt Problem Is, At Its Core, a Budgeting Problem.

Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer.

Debts are nowadays like children begot with pleasure, but brought forth in pain.

If you have debt I’m willing to bet that general clutter is a problem for you too.

Debt is the slavery of the free.

Student loans have been helpful to many. But they offer neither incentive nor assistance to those students who, by reason of family or other obligations, are unable or unwilling to go deeper into debt. … It is, moreover, only prudent economic and social policy for the public to share part of the costs of the long period of higher education for those whose development is essential to our national economic and social well-being. All of us share in the benefits – all should share in the costs.

Private student loans should be avoided at all costs.

Debt is great source of inner unhappiness.

Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.

Debt, we’ve learned, is the match that lights the fire of every crisis. Every crisis has its own set of villains – pick your favorite: bankers, regulators, central bankers, politicians, overzealous consumers, credit rating agencies – but all require one similar ingredient to create a true crisis: too much leverage.

People are living longer than ever before, a phenomenon undoubtedly made necessary by the 30-year mortgage.

Debt certainly isn’t always a bad thing. A mortgage can help you afford a home. Student loans can be a necessity in getting a good job. Both are investments worth making, and both come with fairly low interest rates.

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity.

It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.