You can be rich, or you can deliberately refuse to be rich.
 George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). copy citation

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Author George Orwell
Source Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Topic
Date 1936
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200021.txt

Context

“Hats off to the factory lad who with fourpence in the world puts his girl in the family way! At least he’s got blood and not money in his veins. Gordon thought it all out, in the naïve selfish manner of a boy. There are two ways to live, he decided. You can be rich, or you can deliberately refuse to be rich. You can possess money, or you can despise money; the one fatal thing is to worship money and fail to get it. He took it for granted that he himself would never be able to make money. It hardly even occurred to him that he might have talents which could be turned to account.” source