Wealth
Overview
 
Wealth is the abundance
Abundance
Abundance may refer to:In science and technology:* Abundance , the opposite of scarcities* Abundance , growing food with plentiful resources that will not run out -- sunshine, CO2, and waste or brine water....

 of valuable
Value (economics)
An economic value is the worth of a good or service as determined by the market.The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline. First, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods...

 resource
Resource
A resource is a source or supply from which benefit is produced, typically of limited availability.Resource may also refer to:* Resource , substances or objects required by a biological organism for normal maintenance, growth, and reproduction...

s or material possessions
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

. The word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...

 wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

 word stem. An individual, community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources is known as wealthy.

The concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, especially development economics
Development economics
Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...

, yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent and there is no universally agreed upon definition.
Quotations

"It is more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

Jesus Christ, The New Testament, Luke 18:18

"We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."

George Bernard Shaw, Candida, I

"Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream."

William Cowper, The Task, III, ‘The Garden’, 263

"Penny wise, pound foolish."

Robert Burton (1577-1640), Anatomy of Melancholy, ‘Democritus to the reader’

"Riches are a good handmaiden, but the worst mistress."

Francis Bacon, De dignitate et augmentis scientiarium, Part I. vi. 3. 6

"The rich are the scum of the earth in every country."

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English author and mystery novelist, The Flying Inn (1914)

"There is no Wealth but Life."

John Ruskin, Unto This Last, IV (1860)

"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed."

Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace

"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it."

Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1736 edition)

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."

Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 11th March 1856

 
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