Citations:avarice

English citations of avarice

Noun

excessive desire of gain from wealth

			1606	1726 1776 1776	1860		2006
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1606 - Shakespeare, Macbeth iv 3

  With this there grows,

  In my most ill-compos'd affection, such

  A stanchless avarice, that, were I king,

  I should cut off the nobles for their lands.

• 1726 - Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels Part II, ch. vi

  Whether they were always so free from avarice, partialities, or want, that a bribe, or some other sinister view, could have no place among them?

• 1776 - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

  Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches; and though avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

• 1776 - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

  For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins.

• 1860, John Ruskin, Unto This Last, Cornhill Magazine

  "The social affections," says the economist, "are accidental and disturbing elements in human nature; but avarice and the desire of progress are constant elements. Let us eliminate the inconstants, and, considering the human being merely as a covetous machine, examine by what laws of labour, purchase, and sale, the greatest accumulative result in wealth is obtainable..."

• 2006 - Square-Enix, Kingdom Hearts II Episode 2 of Port Royal ("Pirates of the Caribbean world")

  The Darkness of men's hearts, drawn to these cursed medallions; and this Heartless, a veritable maelstrom of avarice. I wonder, are they worthy to serve Organization XIII?