Favorite Mustachian Quotes

[cbr shadow]

I saw a couple quotes recently about "keeping it simple" and really liked them.  I'd like to hear if anyone else has any similar quotes that they'd like to share.

Below the quotes I saw and saved.
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“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”--Charles Kingsley

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"It will be easily believed of the Idler, that if his title had required any search, he never would have found it. Every mode of life has its conveniences. The Idler, who habituates himself to be satisfied with what he can most easily obtain, not only escapes labors which are often fruitless, but sometimes succeeds better than those who despise all that is within their reach, and think everything more valuable as it is harder to be acquired. If similitude of manners be a motive to kindness, the Idler may flatter himself with universal patronage. There is no single character under which such numbers are comprised. Every man is, or hopes to be, an Idler. Even those who seem to differ most from us are hastening to increase our fraternity; as peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. ...scarcely any name can be imagined from which less envy or competition is to be dreaded. The Idler has no rivals or enemies. The man of business forgets him; the man of enterprise despises him; and though such as tread the same track of life fall commonly into jealousy and discord, Idlers are always found to associate in peace; and he who is most famed for doing nothing, is glad to meet another as idle as himself."

[Reepekg]

"A watched 401(k) never boils."

[lentilman]

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
Albert Einstein

[mjs111]

"big hat, no cattle," is a personal favorite to describe anti-mustachians who have flashy cars and/or houses but no money in the bank.

Mike

[C. K.]

Here's a quote from the job front. Agnes Moorehead, a theater and radio actress who was typecast in bitter spinster roles in films, says this:

“Hollywood was a place to earn enough money to be able to do the sort of stage acting one wants to do.”

So it's not just non-celebrities who feel this way. Famous people sometimes want to rake in the loot just to do as they please. Sounds like many people here on the forum.

[Leisured]

One of the posters has in a byline a quote of Calvin Coolidge. 'There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.'

I also like an idea expressed in the book 'The Richest Man in Babylon', that if you save and invest, you are paying yourself. If you spend all your money you pay other people, and not yourself.

[vern]

"big hat, no cattle," is a personal favorite to describe anti-mustachians who have flashy cars and/or houses but no money in the bank.

Mike

"The bigger the buckle, the smaller the ranch."  Is another version.

[Leisured]

I went to BrainyQuote for some quotes from Warren Buffet. I show them below.

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

[marty998]

"big hat, no cattle," is a personal favorite to describe anti-mustachians who have flashy cars and/or houses but no money in the bank.

Mike

"The bigger the buckle, the smaller the ranch."  Is another version.

20 years ago we had a Prime Minister (Paul Keating) who in Parliament labelled a cocky young upstart on the opposition benches "All tip and no iceberg".

[surfastarian]

"Simplify, simplify, simplify." Henry David Thoreau.

Also, the Bob Marley quote in my signature can be fairly easily applied to the Mustachian lifestyle in my opinion.

[Lil_Bit]

This has always resonated with me...

~ Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul?

[chasesfish]

This is more leadership and sales..

"Those who can't fill your wallet will fill your ears" - Warren Buffett

[senecando]

"Waste not, want not."

from Tolstoy:

"He was convinced that, just as the duck was created so that it must always live in water, so he was created by God so that he must live on an income of thirty thousand and occupy a high position in society."

from Nietzsche:

"At bottom, one now feels when confronted with work--and what is invariably meant is relentless industry from early till late--that such work is the best policy, that it keeps everybody in harness and powerfully obstructs the development of reason, of covetousness, of the desire for independence. For it uses up a tremendous amount of nervous energy and takes it away from reflection, brooding, dreaming, worry, love and hatred; it always sets a small goal before one's eyes and permits easy and regular satisfactions."

[Dezrah]

I swear I saw this somewhere on this forum, but I can't remember who said it or if it was even their quote initially:

"You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want."

[Random]

No exactly on topic, but a good line from a non-profit fundraising training session:  "if you want someone to give you advice, ask for money.  If you want someone to give you money, ask for their advice."

An unmustachian quote:  "I try to live within my means.... even if I have to borrow to do so."

a wonderful quote from Galbraith that has many, many applications:  "Conventional wisdom is that body of beliefs that is solemnly, assiduously, and mindlessly traded among the pretentiously wise."

And famously and profoundly from ghandi, "be the change you want to see in the world."

[AustinKat]

"You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want."

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" ---Steven Wright

[vern]

Mark Twain

"I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two million dollars."

[turboseize]

Some quotes by André Kostolany. I just translated them myself (and do not have any formal language education besides the little we learned in school), so please excuse the quality of the translation.




"One must not be rich, but independent."


"I want to be independent. And the best means to independence is money."


"Of one fifth of the stock market live the traders - of four fifths, the brokerage companies."


"Always be fearful, never panic!"


"I often ask myself whether it might be better to go to the stock exchange or to go fishing. At the stock exchange, you can hear a lot of tips and then you can do the opposite, but while fishing, you can better think about what better not to do."


"A man can choose different ways to get rid of his fortune: the fastest is roulette, the most pleasurable is with beautiful women and the most stupid is at the stock exchange."


"The whole stock market depends on whether there are more stocks than idiots or more idiots than stocks."


"Sometimes it's better to spend one hour thinking about money than to spend a week working for it."

[cbr shadow]

I really liked this one from above:
"Sometimes it's better to spend one hour thinking about money than to spend a week working for it."

[weston]

Pretty much anything that came out of Joe Dominguez's mouth during his last few decades on earth would qualify in my book.

My current favorite (paraphrasing because I don't remember exactly where/when I read/heard it)

"Those that can't figure how much is enough.... condemn themselves to eternal poverty"

I also often quote Fight Club

"You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f**king khakis."
and

And Tuesdays with Morrie

Again paraphrasing "Somebody always has a bigger house"

and

"Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. 'Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'

You know how I interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.

Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have.”

[schimt]

I swear I saw this somewhere on this forum, but I can't remember who said it or if it was even their quote initially:

"You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want."

that is Paula's line and motivation behind her blog over at affordanything.com

http://affordanything.com/about/

[imustachemystash]

Does anyone have any more quotes?  I am collecting these for a project.

[imustachemystash]

“If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.”
― Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

“Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them.”
― Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

“In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.”
― Warren Buffet

“be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.”
― Warren Buffet

[tariskat]

"We are not retreating.  We are advancing in another direction." General Oliver Smith. Alternatively, if you look on Wikipedia, "Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction."

+1 for "Big hat, no cattle."

This is Dave Ramsey, but I saw it somewhere here on the forums.  "Poor is a state of mind. Broke is just passing through."

[Sohcrates]

How many things there are that I do not want

Socrates (where I get my username via Bill and Teds Excellent adventure)

[Sohcrates]

Another fight club quote

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

[LowER]

Sale: 40% off……. is still 60% on.

[LibraTraci]

I often get the Police lyric stuck in my head while on my way to work:

"packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes"

It's just a sentence fragment really, but still sums up the clowns quite nicely!

(Side note: I like the gobble quote.  That's *exactly* how people are!) 

[Janie]

Willful waste makes woeful want.

The full poem is in this essay http://www.vpr.net/episode/49601/hunter-willful-waste

[MustachianAccountant]

"...We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And so, having food and clothing, with these we shall be content."
Apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 6:6-8

[C. K.]

This is more leadership and sales..

"Those who can't fill your wallet will fill your ears" - Warren Buffett

Yep! One waiter said that if he gets excessive compliments on his service he knows the tip will be small or non-existent.

[Reepekg]

"There is no lower, middle, or upper class. There is the investor class and the people who have to work for a living."

"You work too hard for your money to risk it gambling."

"When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I'm old, I know that it is." ~Oscar Wilde

[Hedge_87]

The quote in my signature comes to mind when I hear people complain

[Cheddar Stacker]

"An elephant for a dime is only a good deal if you need an elephant and have a dime."

This always make me think of the Sam's/Costco herd. Nothing against the stores, they have their place. However, most of the clientele I see there doesn't appear to be into minimalism in any way, and the quantity of each item is astounding. For non-perishable I get it, but there must be so much waste coming from the meat/deli/dairy/produce type sections.

[RetiredAt63]

This always make me think of the Sam's/Costco herd. Nothing against the stores, they have their place. However, most of the clientele I see there doesn't appear to be into minimalism in any way, and the quantity of each item is astounding. For non-perishable I get it, but there must be so much waste coming from the meat/deli/dairy/produce type sections.

For perishables, anything that can be frozen is not an issue - I break down my purchases into 2 person servings (for a dinner and then lunch the next day), wrap and freeze.  I can go for a long time on my freezer (it's just the one with my fridge, not a stand-alone).  The biggest issue with Costco is impulse purchases, but that is true anywhere.  At least with Costo it is debit or cash, not credit, so people do have a limit.

When I am leaving with my planned few items and I see someone else leaving with her (never seems to be a him) few items, we smile knowingly at each other.

[Cheddar Stacker]

I thought about freezers as I posted, but posted anyway. I see your point.

I tend to see less of the "few items" people and more of the 6 cases of soda, full sheet cake, boxes of candy, double family bags of chips crowd with a full cart, and this is at Sam's where you can use credit. Maybe that's why I automatically think of this store when I think of this quote - you can literally buy a bunch of stuff you don't need with money you don't have.

[AccidentalMiser]

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone" -Emerson

[Cheddar Stacker]

"You can't fix diabetes with bigger pants." - MMM
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone else planted a tree many years ago" - ??
"Price is what you pay for something. Value is what you receive."

[nyxst]

How many things there are that I do not want

Socrates (where I get my username via Bill and Teds Excellent adventure)

Awesome movie :) every time I give someone cash, I fight the urge to say "here.... Is some money...."
be excellent to each other...

[steveo]

Thoreau: That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

[OldDogNewTrick]

"Despise not the day of small things."

[Hedge_87]

One my grandfather uses often is an ounce of prevention is worth a pound a cure. Might not be directly mustachian but I think having you ducks in a row and planning ahead is a pretty good thing

[begood]

"big hat, no cattle," is a personal favorite to describe anti-mustachians who have flashy cars and/or houses but no money in the bank.

Mike

This reminds me of a similar quote: "A lot of frosting, no cake."

[FrugalShrew]

"Only stupid people get bored." Selma Hayek's mom.

[jordanread]

I know I'm necroposting here, but screw it, this is a good spot. After using highlighting on a kindle for recipes, I actually looked at the auto-generated "My Clippings", and found a few highlights I made, that I liked, and thought I would share. Not all of them are Mustachian per se, but still good.

"[People] spend their most productive hours and years in a job which they don't really care about, after which they go home exhausted to deal with spouse, kids, dinner, bills, trying to keep up with the neighbors, and languishing in front of the TV because they have little energy left." - Jacob Lund Fisker

"There are people who can make love standing on a hammock, but it is not the easiest way" - Allen Carr

"[You] make success inevitable when you supply YOUR end in consistent, diligent, skillful application" - John Du Kane

"Comfort and security, it seems, when over prescribed, can be poisons to the soul - an illness that no amount of love can cure, freedom being the only antidote."  - Ken Ilgunas

"Debt narrows our options. It gives us a good reason to stick it out at a job, sink into sofas, and savor the comforts of the status quo. Debt is sought so we have a game to play, a battle to fight, a mythology to live out."  - Ken Ilgunas

"Must we measure our success by the size of our homes and salaries? What if we got healthier, lived more sustainably, and became more self-reliant, albeit in tighter dwellings and in smaller families? Isn't that success, too?"  - Ken Ilgunas

"We can see, rather, that it's the frugal who are immune from economic epidemics."  - Ken Ilgunas

"Endurance demanded sacrifice, but gave back life. Endurance was always the tougher choice, but gave the truer measure of a heart" - Terry Brooks

"This is the assembly of life that it took a billion years to evolve. It has eaten the storms - folded them into its genes - and created the world that created us. It holds the world steady." - E. O. Wilson

[Guesl982374]

Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.

Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.

Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time.

- Albert Einstein


"Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright" ~Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

[LaineyAZ]

"Only stupid people get bored." Selma Hayek's mom.

If you're bored, you're boring.     My mom.   :-) 

[gggggg]

The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to deal with.

-Not sure, but I say it all the time.

[lifejoy]

"If you buy quality, you only flinch once." - my dad :)

To me, it speaks to a "buy it for life" and efficiency perspective.

[lifejoy]

"You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want."

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" ---Steven Wright

"You can have everything you want, just not all at the same time." - Gail Vaz-Oxlade