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I never met a rich man who was happy, but I have only very occasionally met a poor man who did not want to become a rich man.
Malcolm Muggeridge
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Wealth does not guarantee happiness, and many desire riches regardless of their current status.

This quote suggests that despite encountering many wealthy individuals, true happiness is rarely found among them. In contrast, it highlights the common aspiration of poor individuals to attain wealth, indicating a potential disconnect between financial status and genuine contentment.

Themes

WealthHappinessPovertyRichContentment

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about the value of happiness over material wealth.

More from Malcolm Muggeridge

Education, the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the age purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility.
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This life in us; however low it flickers or fiercely burns, is still a divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives never so humane and enlightened; To suppose otherwise is to countenance a death-wish; Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.
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It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.
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Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
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The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.
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All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. To see all that is offered us at the windows of the soul, and to reach out and receive what is offered, this is the art of living.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead

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