Take a look at your wallet, and you’ll likely see some pictures of dead guys staring back at you. And it turns out that a lot of those guys had plenty of good financial advice to share. Personal financial advice is clogging up the Internet, and not all of it is good advice. However, the following quotes have been culled from some of the best-known businessmen, entrepreneurs, historical figures, and other famous people to provide you with some solid aphorisms for protecting your net worth. Pair the quotes below with our past advice about getting smarter, or with our past post about the daily habits of other famous people, and you’ll be well-prepared for any financial quandary you come across.

Historical Figures

“A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained. It requires some training, perhaps, to accomplish this economy, but when once used to it, you will find there is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending.” -P. T. Barnum

“Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Old men are always advising young men to save money. That is bad advice. Don’t save every nickel. Invest in yourself. I never saved a dollar until I was forty years old.” -Henry Ford

“The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.”  -Frank Hubbard

“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” -Oscar Wilde


“My old father used to have a saying:  If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter. ” -Abraham Lincoln

“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” -Ben Franklin

Celebrities

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” -Bob Hope

“You [can] use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren’t allowed to be normal.” -Johnny Depp

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” -Will Smith

Writers

“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” -Robert Graves

“It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all his eggs in one basket.” -Miguel de Cervantes

Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets,

But gold that’s put to use more gold begets.
-William Shakespeare

“October:  This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks.  The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” -Mark Twain

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” -Maya Angelou

Political Figures

“It is an elementary and vital courtesy when you are using people’s own money against them that you do it with some grace.” -Richard Neely, WV Supreme Court

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics.” -Jesse M. Unruh

“In prosperity prepare for a change; in adversity hope for one.” -James Burgh

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Businessmen and Entrepreneurs

“God gave me my money. I believe the power to make money is a gift from God . . . to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.” -John D. Rockefeller

“The four most expensive words in the English language are, ‘This time it’s different.’” -Sir John Templeton

“If you can, you will quickly find that the greatest rate of return you will earn is on your own personal spending. Being a smart shopper is the first step to getting rich.” -Mark Cuban

“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years.” -Warren Buffett

“Put all good eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.” -Andrew Carnegie


“Experience taught me a few things.  One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper.  The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know.  And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”  Donald Trump

“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.  The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” Henry Ford

Conclusion

People have been trying to find the best financial advice ever since the first coins were minted millennia ago. Not every famous person gives great advice about managing money, but the quotes above will definitely serve you well as you build your net worth.

What was the best financial advice you were ever given? Tell us in the comments below, follow us on Twitter, or take the conversation over to Facebook.