Debt Quotes

“I do not want America to default on its debt.”

“Debt collectors should not have the right to endlessly harass borrowers.”

“We have determined as a society, as a country, as a people, that the incarceration and the supervision and the specific fines for a particular crime are that person's debt to society.”

“The American people know that our economy is struggling right now, partly because of the debt that is impacting American families, hardworking taxpayers all across this country.”

“There was, of course, a global financial crisis. But our Labour predecessors left Britain exceptionally vulnerable and damaged: more personal debt than any other major economy; a dangerously inflated property bubble; and a bloated banking sector behaving as masters, not the servants of the people.”

“I am fighting for those middle-class families who want us to deal with our debt and deficit, but they also want the investments that are critical to our country moving forward.”

“We inherited a strong and flourishing country, and instead of making the investments - that is, the sacrifices - to maintain it, we chose to suck it dry and stick our children with the bill. If you want to see who is to blame for student debt, just look in the mirror. And if parents find themselves supporting kids beyond their college years, that is only, in the aggregate, a form of compensatory justice: the intergenerational transfer of wealth that should have been effected through taxation.”

“Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to anyone who serves honourably. I think it's despicable that a president would put veterans on his website and list them on an enemies list.”

“When we worked with the organization that represents students, they were unequivocal: They want debt-free college. And for many of those students, that has to include the total cost of attendance.”

“The iPad was my first splurge after I got my first paychecks. I paid off the debt, and I now bring the iPad with me to auditions.”

“For Andrew Jackson, politics was very personal. He hated not just the federal debt. He hated debt at all.”

“There are lots of families who - who make irresponsible purchases. There are also a lot of families who have debt on credit cards because they use those credit cards to pay for medical bills.”

“What we define as a bubble is any kind of debt-fueled asset inflation where the cash flow generated by the asset itself - a rental property, office building, condo - does not cover the debt incurred to buy the asset. So you depend on a greater fool, if you will, to come in and buy at a higher price.”

“The Latin American debt that reached crisis levels from 1982 would have been sharply reduced by return of flight capital - in some cases, overcome, though all figures are dubious for these secret and often illegal operations.”

“The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its debt in the penitentiary or the poor house.”

“The student-loan crisis has an underappreciated emotional valence too: The debt makes people miserable. In one survey, more than half of borrowers said that they have experienced depression because of their debt. Nine in 10 reported experiencing anxiety.”

“Americans who serve in the armed forces risk everything to defend our country. When they sacrifice their health or their very lives in the name of freedom, we owe them a massive debt we can never fully repay.”

“I looked into her eyes, and saw my own staring back, the same peculiar shade, pale grey, flecked with yellow, rimmed with black. Now I knew the nature of her debt. It had weighed on her conscience for fourteen years. I was looking into the eyes of mother and I knew that I would never see her again.”

“Nature is an expert in cost-benefit analysis,' she says. 'Although she does her accounting a little differently. As for debts, she always collects in the long run...”

“We saw in Greece how dangerous it is if a country has a bigger and bigger debt, and I hope that we will not have a second Greece in our neighbouring country, Italy.”