Misers have no belief in a future life; the present is their all in all.
 Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet (1834). copy citation

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Author Honoré de Balzac
Source Eugénie Grandet
Topic belief future
Date 1834
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A9nie_Grandet

Context

“"Madame Grandet, have you found a mine?" said the man, coming into the chamber of his wife. "My friend, wait; I am saying my prayers," said the poor mother in a trembling voice. "The devil take your good God!" growled Grandet in reply. Misers have no belief in a future life; the present is their all in all. This thought casts a terrible light upon our present epoch, in which, far more than at any former period, money sways the laws and politics and morals. Institutions, books, men, and dogmas, all conspire to undermine belief in a future life,—a belief upon which the social edifice has rested for eighteen hundred years.” source