Source identified
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Voice: Fictional character · Lord Henry Wotton
The distinction between price and value criticizes a way of thinking that can measure cost while missing significance.
Source note: The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 3; Lord Henry gives the price-and-value epigram after describing a bargain for old brocade.
Source identified
“Riches I hold in light esteem, And Love I laugh to scorn; And lust of fame was but a dream, That vanished with the morn.”
The speaker strips wealth, romantic attachment and fame of ultimate authority in order to define freedom through an inwardly independent stance.
Source note: “The Old Stoic,” in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; Project Gutenberg #1019. The poem uses a deliberately severe persona and should not be treated as a complete ethical system.
Source identified
“The mind is its own place.”
Voice: Poetic speaker · Satan
The statement emphasizes how mental framing can alter the experience of circumstances, for good or ill.
Source note: Paradise Lost, Book I; the fuller sentence continues with heaven and hell as states the mind can make.
Source identified
“Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.”
Voice: Authorial persona / framed maxim · Poor Richard maxim, repeated through Father Abraham
Desired appearance should be tested against actual means before spending, placing affordability ahead of fashion or social comparison.
Source note: The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855. The line appears in a short verse warning against pride-driven spending on dress.
Source identified
“The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
Accumulating wealth without using it responsibly is presented as a moral failure, shifting attention from possession to stewardship and public benefit.
Source note: The Gospel of Wealth; Carnegie argues that surplus wealth carries social responsibilities during the owner’s lifetime.
Source identified
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
Thoreau places truth above three powerful human desires, making the sentence a compact statement of intellectual and moral priority.
Source note: Walden, Conclusion; Thoreau closes the book by contrasting outward wealth and status with the inner quality of a person’s life.