Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,—

A breath can make them, as a breath has made;

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,

When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 51.

Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,

But leave us still our old nobility.

Lord John Manners (1818-1906): England's Trust. Part iii. Line 227.

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails,

And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Traveller. Line 91.

Breathes there the man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd

From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there breathe, go, mark him well!

For him no minstrel raptures swell;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,—

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto vi. Stanza 1.

Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace;

If not, by any means get wealth and place.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace. Epistle i. Book i. Line 103.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,

Await alike the inevitable hour.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 9.

Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Jew of Malta. Act i.

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,

Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold;

His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,

Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.

Sir John Denham (1615-1668): Cooper's Hill. Line 165.

Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace;

If not, by any means get wealth and place.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace. Epistle i. Book i. Line 103.

His best companions, innocence and health;

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 61.

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt,

As sages in all times assert;

The happy man's without a shirt.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Be Merry Friends.

High on a throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand

Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,

Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd

To that bad eminence.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1.

What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine,

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?

They sought a faith's pure shrine.

John Keble (1792-1866): Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xxiii. Line 368.

From toil he wins his spirits light,

From busy day the peaceful night;

Rich, from the very want of wealth,

In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 93.

And what is friendship but a name,

A charm that lulls to sleep,

A shade that follows wealth or fame,

And leaves the wretch to weep?

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 19.

I would not have a slave to till my ground,

To carry me, to fan me while I sleep

And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth

That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 29.