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Is Money Really the Root of All Evil?

Updated on October 27, 2014

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Is Money Really the Root of All Evil?

This is another one of those questions of the ages. Is money really the root of all evil?

I decided to question once more some of the greatest philosophers and sages who have ever lived. Do I hear you explaining that many of those folks have been dead for centuries?

True! But with the aid of my newly renovated, superior supernatural helmet, I can question them with little difficulty. Trust me.

Note: I also asked this question of a few great minds who are still on the right side of the earth.

Here is what I learned when I asked, "Is money really the root of all evil?"

Mark Twain – A more accurate statement would be: “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Plato (5th century Greek philosopher) – No, Mark, “Ignorance (is) the root and stem of all evil.”

Herodotus (5th century Greek historian) – Plato, bro, you said it like it is: “The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”

Sophocles (5th century playwright) – You are both on the wrong track. “Surely there never was so evil a thing as money, which maketh cities into ruinous heaps, and banisheth men from their houses, and turneth their thoughts from good unto evil.”

Swami Vivekananda (19th century Indian Hindu monk) – Soph, you were the man. “If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.”

Dorothy Parker“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

Mark Frost (co-creator of the TV series, ‘Twin Peaks’) – Do you know “… the first ironclad rule of the enormously wealthy? Never spend one’s own money.”

Francis Bacon – I beg to disagree, Mr. Frost. “Riches are for spending.”

Karl Marx“I do not like money, money is the reason we fight.” Too true, too often.

Henny Youngman“I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need if I die by four o’clock.”

Oscar Wilde“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”

Aristotle Onassis – Not so, Oscar. “After a certain point, money is meaningless. It ceases to be the goal. The game is what counts.”

H. L. Hunt – That’s true, Ari. “Money is just a way of keeping score.”

Ted Turner“Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.” (Ted, I think H.L. said it first.)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.“Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.”

Agatha Christie – I always believed, “Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.”

Andrew JacksonFunny you should say that. “I have always been afraid of banks.”

Bob Hope“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.”

William Shakespeare“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

Alan King“Banks have a new image. Now you have ‘a friend,’ your friendly banker. If the banks are so friendly, how come they chain down the pens?”

Bo Derek“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.”

David Lee Roth – Right on, Bo. “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside of it.”

Everett Dirksen – “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

J. Paul Getty – That’s true, Ev. But “if you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars.”

Richard Armour“That money talks, I’ll not deny. I heard it once: It said, ‘Goodbye’.”

And on a very serious note:

Blaise Pascal“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

For me, that final quote may well sum up the misbegotten motivation of the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist organizations.

Important Note: “Money is the root of all evil” is the popular but misquoted version of a Bible verse. The apostle, Paul, wrote in a letter to his young disciple, Timothy: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

Just sayin’.

Oh, wait, almost forgot. As George Carlin once said: “May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.”

This hub is dedicated to pstraubie who requested a sequel to the "Why Did the Chicken Really Cross the Road?" hub.


© Copyright BJ Rakow (aka drbj) 2014. All rights reserved. Author, "Much of What You Know about Job Search Just Ain't So."

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