John Dryden: Sell Your Soul
on Tuesday, February 15, 2022John Dryden Money Quote saying misers would do anything, go anywhere for money and will leave it all to heirs. John Dryden said:
“Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son” — John Dryden
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In this quote, John Dryden seems to be critiquing the miserly behavior and priorities of those who are excessively focused on amassing wealth at the expense of enjoying life and relationships.
Specifically, Dryden portrays the miser as willing to “sell your soul” or compromise their integrity and humanity in the relentless pursuit of accumulating more money. They are constantly trading and bartering “wares for wares” in business without rest, traveling tirelessly “from pole to pole” in the quest for riches.
However, Dryden notes that after such a miser has died, people will merely remark on the large estate and fortune they left behind for their heir rather than anything meaningful they accomplished. Their legacy amounts to the wealth amassed, not lives impacted.
The best interpretation is that Dryden believed the miser’s lifestyle of constant work and penny-pinching just to gather riches was ultimately empty and pointless. After death, they will only be remembered for their accumulated money rather than experiences or relationships, having prioritized financial prosperity over life’s deeper fulfillments according to Dryden’s perspective.
Birthday: August 19, 1631 – Death: May 12, 1700