Posts Tagged ‘estate’
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
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
Woody Allen: Good Thing Being Poor at 70
on Saturday, October 6, 2018Woody Allen Money Quote saying poor people don’t have to worry about relatives seeking to gain control of their assets as they get old. Woody Allen said:
“Another good thing about being poor is that when you are seventy your children will not have declared you legally insane in order to gain control of your estate” — Woody Allen
In this quote, Woody Allen seems to be making a sardonic joke about the downsides of accumulating wealth. Some key points:
- He notes that one benefit of remaining poor is that adult children will not try to have their parent declared mentally unfit later in life just to inherit their estate more quickly.
- Allen is implying that for some wealthy elderly, concerns over inheritance have led greedy offspring to question their competency or sanity in legal attempts to gain control of the parent’s assets prematurely.
- His comment humorously suggests that by avoiding riches, one can sidestep the potential drama and manipulation from greedy heirs impatient for an inheritance.
Overall, the quote reflects Allen’s signature dry wit in pointing out the darkly comical downside to amassing a large estate – it may motivate unscrupulous relatives to declare you incompetent in order to access the money sooner, so poverty can avoid such family squabbles over inheritance according to Allen’s tongue-in-cheek perspective.
Birthday: November 30, 1935