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Quote by Percival Everett

“I cain't believe Miss Watson gone sell you. I mean, she likes you." "I reckon she likes money mo'. Mos' peoples likes money mo' 'n anythin' else. White folks, anyways.”

Quote by Percival Everett

Book:James

Work

James

James is a fictional narrative that delves into the complexities of human nature, focusing on the protagonist's journey towards self-discovery and understanding. more

Author

Percival Everett

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“Once you were used to this you did not want to go back, it got into your blood and kept you - this voice of luxury folding and wrapping you were soft caressing fingers. It was smooth and warm life the texture of velvet, it was cool and soothing like a linen sheet, it shone white and still like the pearls Rachel wore, and slowly, cunningly, with infinite subtlety it wove a web around your hands and feet, it cast a chain about your neck.”

“But it's important to keep in mind that you break out of this scarcity mindset the same way that you break out of any bad habit. You need to actively change your thinking and behavior over time. Maybe that's saying affirmations in the mirror in the morning, maybe it's pounding the table and negotiating at your job for more money every single year, maybe it's forcing yourself to order something that isn't the cheapest thing on the menu. So, while yes, I highly recommend you talk to a therapist, you also need to be making active decisions to grow your wealth instead of just hoarding it or frittering it away.”

“I have hoped and trusted not too, Pa; but every day he changes for the worse, and for the worse. Not to me—he is always much the same to me—but to others about him. Before my eyes he grows suspicious, capricious, hard, tyrannical, unjust. If ever a good man were ruined by good fortune, it is my benefactor. And yet, Pa, think how terrible the fascination of money is! I see this, and hate this, and dread this, and don’t know but that money might make a much worse change in me. And yet I have money always in my thoughts and my desires; and the whole life I place before myself is money, money, money, and what money can make of life!”

“Max Weber traces the origins of modern capitalism to certain Calvinists who, disregarding the parable of the camel and the eye of the needle, preach the doctrine of the just rewards of work. Yet the concept of shifting and increasing one's "wealth on the hoof" has a history as old as herding itself. Domesticated animals are "currency", "things that run", from the French courir. In fact almost all our monetary expressions - capital, stock, pecuniary, chattel, sterling - perhaps even the idea of "growth" itself - have their origins in the pastoral world.”

“Through this do-nothing service, I’ve encountered a lot of different perspectives on money. Everybody wants money and it’s difficult not to feel stressed when you don’t have it. So when we do something, we tend to think about financial benefit. I think that is why new ideas so rarely take shape. If I were to make money a top priority, whatever I did would be dull. Rather than avoiding stress, I’d become even more stressed. So I put the issue of money aside. For now, this allows me to do interesting things. And perhaps these will lead to something that makes money in the future. As I said before, if I charged clients it would lead nowhere. I think ignoring money has allowed me to have different values, which stimulate new and different ways of relating to people.”