Your height is a permanent condition.  So is the color of your eyes.  Your debt is not.  It’s a situation.  Situations are temporary.  A cold is a situation.  You didn’t always have it; you won’t have it forever.  Debt is nothing more than that.

— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously

I had a guy tell me the reason he couldn’t get ahead and pay his bills was because he wasn’t good at math.  Lousy excuse.  Especially since this guy was only working nine hours per week!  Math wasn’t his problem.  Work was his problem.

— Larry Winget, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be

I was just like most people who finally had money.  Rather than act responsibly with my newfound cash flow, I felt I was entitled to make up for lost time by eating out every night, hitting the clubs, taking nice vacations, and filling my life with whatever gadgets I wanted.  I thought picking up the tab was a great way to impress people; so what that I couldn’t really afford to do it?  In the end, I had to learn the hard way that success is not solely about making more money.  It is about knowing where the money you make is going.

— Suze Orman, Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, & Broke

It may be ugly for you and things may be truly bleak, but you can always get ahead.  I am not going to insult you by telling you it will be easy.  At times, digging out of your mountain of debt to get ahead will be overwhelming.  But know this:  You can do it if you want to do it.  You may not be able to make your life perfect, but you can certainly make it better than it is.  The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that your situation is hopeless.  It’s not hopeless because you aren’t helpless.  Accept responsibility for where you are and then go about fixing it.

— Larry Winget, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be

Affirmations are fine, but affirmations alone don’t change your life.  You can say, “I am rich, I am rich, I am rich” until your face turns the color of money, but until you stop doing stupid stuff with your money and start doing smart stuff with your money, you will still be broke.  Affirmation without implementation is self-delusion.

— Larry Winget, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be

The first ritual of wealth and the most important rule of financial success is: Pay yourself first; it’s okay to keep some.

— Tod Barnhart, The Five Rituals of Wealth

Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.

— Esther de Waal

I hear this all the time:  “But it [smart personal finance] is so hard.”  Well, it’s easier than you think, and it’s certainly easier than becoming a financial statistic.  Being a financial failure is what’s really hard.

— Tod Barnhart, The Five Rituals of Wealth

I can’t claim that giving is a prerequisite to amassing a pile of money, because there are so many obviously greedy people getting rich.  However, I would never consider these people wealthy, and I’ve seen a lot of them fall hard in the last few years.  As I’ve said before, wealth goes beyond money.  It means abundance and prosperity, but it also means health, happiness, loving, caring, sharing, learning.  It is the opportunity to make a difference.

— Tod Barnhart, The Five Rituals of Wealth

When advised to budget, most people respond: “But I just don’t have enough money.”  In fact, most of these individuals have a lot more money than they think; they just lack control of it.  Making more money is not the answer.  The sad truth is that if you’re out of control, no matter how much money you earn, you can figure out a way to spend it. … Bad budgetary habits, when applied to twice as much money, simply create twice as much havoc.

— Tod Barnhart, The Five Rituals of Wealth

It’s better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

— Oscar Wilde

Some people never realize that they can redirect their present incomes and become wealthy.  They buy into the popular culture and ignore the wisdom of the ages.  You are responsible for your choices.  Recast your habits and you will change your life permanently.  You may change temporarily by sheer force of will, but it will only be temporary.  Habits, in the long run, will control your destiny.

— Jon Hanson, Good Debt, Bad Debt

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.  Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Debt robs a man of his self-respect and makes him almost despise himself.

— P.T. Barnum, The Art of Money Getting

The first rule of all enterprise is to know a solid value when you see it.  The second rule is to be able to act on an opportunity when it arises.  If your neighbor suddenly decides to sell his extra building for 50 percent of its true value but only if he can have cash in twenty-four hours, can you respond?  The moral of this story is this:  funds already spoken for must remain silent when opportunity knocks.

— Jon Hansen, Good Debt, Bad Debt