Hand-picked quotes about wealth from the best non-fiction books

People with enduring personal finance success—not necessarily those with high incomes—tend to have a propensity to not give a damn what others think about them.

So first things first: cash flow and time. With these two currencies, all other things are possible. Without them, nothing is possible.

The first idea—simple, but easy to overlook—is that building wealth has little to do with your income or investment returns, and lots to do with your savings rate.

A small amount of wealth means the ability to take a few days off work when you’re sick without breaking the bank. Gaining that ability is huge if you don’t have it.

You can save just for saving’s sake. And indeed you should. Everyone should.

The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, “I can do whatever I want today.”

Exercise is like being rich. You think, “I did the work and I now deserve to treat myself to a big meal.” Wealth is turning down that treat meal and actually burning net calories. It’s hard, and requires self-control. But it creates a gap between what you could do and what you choose to do that accrues to you over time.

Wealth is just the accumulated leftovers after you spend what you take in.

Past a certain level of income, what you need is just what sits below your ego.

You might think you want an expensive car, a fancy watch, and a huge house. But I’m telling you, you don’t. What you want is respect and admiration from other people, and you think having expensive stuff will bring it. It almost never does—especially from the people you want to respect and admire you

Everyone agrees that we need to share the wealth, as long as it is your wealth, not their wealth.

The world is filled with people who look modest but are actually wealthy and people who look rich who live at the razor’s edge of insolvency. Keep this in mind when quickly judging others’ success and setting your own goals.

Growth is driven by compounding, which always takes time. Destruction is driven by single points of failure, which can happen in seconds, and loss of confidence, which can happen in an instant.

The pursuit of material wealth distracts us from activities and people that provide more lasting pleasure and satisfaction.