The rich are graceful even in their vices. But if you have no money you don’t even know how to spend it when you get it.
 George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). copy citation

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

Context

“He could recall everything, from his first pink gin before he started out to Dora’s peach-coloured garters. He squirmed when he thought of Dora. Why does one do these things? Money again, always money! The rich don’t behave like that. The rich are graceful even in their vices. But if you have no money you don’t even know how to spend it when you get it. You just splurge it frantically away, like a sailor in a bawdy-house his first night ashore. He had been in the clink, twelve hours. He thought of the cold faecal stench of that cell at the police court.” source