101 Quotes from Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Rich Dad Poor Dad is the greatest selling personal finance books of all time, and has helped millions of people build wealth and improve their understanding of money.

Although I don’t agree entirely with the overall philosophy of the book, it’s wisdom and impact on generations cannot be undermined.

Here are 101 of my favourite Rich Dad Poor Dad quotes. Read though and comment which one was your favourite!

1. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.”

2. “Job is an acronym for ‘just over broke.’ ”

3. “I’m concerned that too many people are focused too much on money, and not on their greatest wealth, which is their education.”

4. “The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth.”

5. “The richest people in the world build networks. Everyone else is trained to look for work.”

6. “It’s more important to grow your income than cut your expenses.”

7. ″‘I can’t afford it’ shuts down your brain. ‘How can I afford it?’ opens up possibilities, excitement and dreams.”

8. “You must fire bad customers just as you would fire bad employees. If you don’t get rid of your bad employees, the good employees will leave. If I don’t fire bad customers, not only will my good customers leave, but many of my good employees will leave as well.”

9. “A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate.”

10. “Don’t be addicted to money. Work to learn. Don’t work for money. Work for knowledge.”

11. “There’s a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary. Poor is eternal.”

12. “Always start at the end before you begin. Professional investors always have an exit strategy before they invest. Knowing your exit strategy is an important investment fundamental.”

13. “Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities that they think are assets.”

14. “To be a successful business owner and investor, you have to be emotionally neutral to winning and losing. Winning and losing are just part of the game.”

15. “The primary difference between a rich person and poor person is how they manage fear.”

16. “Success is a poor teacher. We learn the most about ourselves when we fail, so don’t be afraid of failing. Failing is part of the process of success. You cannot have success without failure.”

17. “Sight is what you see with your eyes. Vision is what you see with your mind.”

18. “There are no bad business and investment opportunities, but there are bad entrepreneurs and investors.”

19. “So many people say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in money.’ Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day.”

20. “The more I risk being rejected, the better my chances are of being accepted.”

21. “In today’s rapidly changing world, the people who aren’t taking risk are the risk takers.”

22. “Skills make you rich, not theories.”

23. “The rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.”

24. “Often in the real world, it’s not the smart who get ahead, but the bold.”

25. “Financial struggle is often the result of people working all their lives for someone else.”

26. “Most people have a price. They have a price because of human emotions named fear and greed. First, the fear of being without money motivates us to work hard. Once we get that paycheck, greed gets us thinking about all the wonderful things money can buy. A pattern is then set: get up, go to work, pay bills, get up, go to work, pay bills… Their lives are then run forever by two emotions, fear and greed. Offer them more money, and they continue the cycle by also increasing their spending. This is what I call the Rat Race.”

27. “Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward. “If I stopped working today, how long could I survive?”

28. “An asset is something that puts money in my pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket.”

29. “Life is sometimes tough when you don’t fit the standard profile.”

30. “Life is much like going to the gym. The most painful part is deciding to go. Once you get past that, it’s easy.”

31. “Balanced people go nowhere. They stay in one spot.”

32. “They get up every day and go work for money, not taking the time to ask the question, ‘Is there another way?”

33. “Today, wealth is in information. The person who has the most timely information owns the wealth.”

34. “There is always risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoiding it.”

35. “The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.”

36. “An intelligent person hires people who are more intelligent than them.”

37. “Most people fail to realise that in life, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep.”

38. “Excessive fear and self-doubt that were the greatest detractors of personal genius.”

39. “Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions.”

40. “We all have tremendous potential, and we‘re all blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence.”

41. “As I said, I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn’t.”

42. “Without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.”

43. “I’d rather welcome change than cling to the past.”

44. “The love of money is the root of all evil. The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

45. “You’re only poor if you give up. The most important thing is that you did something. Most people only talk and dream of getting rich. You’ve done something.”

46. “Winners aren’t afraid of losing. Losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”

47. “In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we’re punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.”

48. “If you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for something that never happens. Then, you die a boring old person.”

49. “Intelligence solves problems and produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.”

50. “In the real world outside of academics, something more than just grades is required. This factor, whatever it’s labeled, ultimately decides one’s future much more than school grades.”

51. “In the real world, the smartest people are people who make mistakes and learn. In school, the smartest people don’t make mistakes.”

52. “It’s not what you say that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power!”

53. “It’s more important to grow your spirit that cut your dreams.”

54. “A mistake is a signal that it’s time to learn something new, something you don’t know before.”

55. “A winning strategy must include losing.”

56. “Failure inspires winners. And failure defeats losers.”

57. “The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning; thus, they’re not afraid of losing.”

58. “The trouble with school is that they give you the answer, then the exam. That’s not life.”

59. “Everything the working class has been told to do, the rich don’t do. That is my message.”

60. “Forget the Camel. If a man can pass through the eye of the needle, he will enter the world of tremendous wealth.”

61. “If you want to go somewhere, it’s best to find someone who’s already been there.”

62. “Education is more valuable than money, in the long run.”

63. “It’s what’s in your head that determines what’s in your hands.”

64. “Unfortunately for many people school is the end, not the beginning.”

65. “Once a person stops searching for information and self-knowledge, ignorance sets in.”

66. “I have found that the more I teach those who want to learn, the more I learn.”

67. “I’ve learned that, without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.”

68. “The most common form of laziness? Laziness by staying busy.”

69. “Today, I often meet people who are too busy to take care of their wealth. And there are people too busy to take care of their health. The cause is the same. They’re busy, and they stay busy as a way of avoiding something they don’t want to face.”

70. “Arrogant or critical people are often people with low self-esteem who are afraid of taking risks. That’s because, if you learn something new, you are then required to make mistakes in order to fully understand what you have learned.”

71. “You’d best change your point of view. Stop blaming me and thinking I’m the problem. If you think I’m the problem, then you have to change me.”

72. “The three most important management skills necessary to start your own business are management of: 1. Cash flow. 2. People. 3. Personal time.”

73. “Often, the more money you make, the more money you spend. That’s why more money doesn’t make you rich. Assets make you rich.”

74. “One dad would say: “The LOVE for money is the root of all evil”. The other one, “The LACK of money is the root of all evil”.”

75. “The philosophy of the rich and the poor is this: the rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.”

76. “It’s what you know that is your greatest wealth. It’s what you don’t know that is your greatest risk. There is always risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoid it.”

77. “The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time.”

78. “A problem with school is that you often become what you study. The mistake in becoming what you study is that too many people forget to mind their own business. They spend their lives minding someone else’s business and making that person rich.”

79. “There is a big difference between your profession and your business. I often ask people “What is your business?” And they will say “Oh, I’m a banker”. Then, I ask them if they own the bank? And they usually respond “No, I work there…”

80. “Cash flow tells the story of how a person handles money.”

81. “Know a little about a lot.”

82. “Rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first.”

83. “It’s easier to stand on the sidelines, criticise, and say why you shouldn’t do something. The sidelines are crowded. Get in the game.”

84. “The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone else focuses on their income statements.”

85. “The reality is that money is both important and not important at the same time.”

86. “The more real you think money is, the harder you will work for it.”

87. “To spend your life living in fear and never exploring your dreams is cruel.”

88. “The more we learn, the more we realise how little we know.”

89. “Invest in your own education first.”

90. “Powerful ideas are just in your pocket.”

91. “Investing is a plan, not a product or procedure.”

92. “The rich focus on building assets that generate income, while the poor focus on buying liabilities that generate expenses.”

93. “The true measure of an asset is not how much money it makes you, but how many days you can survive without having to work.”

94. “The biggest challenge you have is to challenge your own self-doubt and your laziness.”

95. “Your income is directly related to your philosophy, not the economy.”

96. “Learn to manage your money or the lack of it will always manage you.”

97. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”

98. “The choice of being rich or poor isn’t determined by how much money you have, but by your mindset and attitude towards money.”

99. “If you realise that you’re the problem, then you can change yourself, learn something, and grow wiser.”

100. “Business is like a wheel barrow. Nothing happens until you start pushing.”

101. “Money is just an idea.”

Thanks for reading! Be sure to subscribe (it’s free!) for more financial wisdom every week.