QuoteProject
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
ShareWTF𝕏

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.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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

Similar quotes

I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
If I let myself sink into depression, I won't be able to get out. And then I'll be awfully unhappy. I just have to turn my face to the light and walk on. And trust that things will be all right.
Marianne FaithfullRead
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
Things and conditions can give you pleasure but they cannot give you joy- joy arises from within.
Eckhart TolleRead
...I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life!
Oprah WinfreyRead
It's what's in *yourself* that makes you happy or unhappy.
Agatha ChristieRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.