Robert Reich

Debt, we’ve learned, is the match that lights the fire of every crisis. Every crisis has its own set of villains – pick your favorite: bankers, regulators, central bankers, politicians, overzealous consumers, credit rating agencies – but all require one similar ingredient to create a true crisis: too much leverage.

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man; a debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

Even when I tweeted that I was in debt, that gave me power.

Those have a short Lent, who owe money to be paid at Easter.

Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang upon the fatal mesh until the long-legged interest devours him.

A man must cut down his outgoings and save his incomings if he wants to clear himself; you can’t spend your penny and pay debts with it too. Stint the kitchen if the purse is bare. Don’t believe in any way of wiping out debts except by paying hard cash. Promises make debts, and debts make promises, but promises never pay debts…

We all think we’re going to get out of debt.

Student loans have been helpful to many. But they offer neither incentive nor assistance to those students who, by reason of family or other obligations, are unable or unwilling to go deeper into debt. … It is, moreover, only prudent economic and social policy for the public to share part of the costs of the long period of higher education for those whose development is essential to our national economic and social well-being. All of us share in the benefits – all should share in the costs.

We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

Debt certainly isn’t always a bad thing. A mortgage can help you afford a home. Student loans can be a necessity in getting a good job. Both are investments worth making, and both come with fairly low interest rates.

I took my power back, like, ‘Man, my financial situation don’t make me.’ I’m in debt – now what? And I’m still Ye.- Kanye West

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.

Simply put, unsustainable debt is helping to keep too many poor countries and poor people in poverty.

To preserve their independence, we must not let our rules load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.