Quote#Politics & Power
To make a bank was a great plot of state
Quote byAndrew Marvell · 1621–1678
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Miscellaneous Poems (1681), The Character of Holland (c. 1653).
English (original)
To make a bank was a great plot of state; Invent a shovel, and be a magistrate.
— Andrew Marvell
More from Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.
Art indeed is long, but life is short.
The world in all doth but two nations bear — The good, the bad; and these mixed everywhere.
For though the whole world cannot show such another, Yet we’d better by far have him than his brother.
But at my back I always hear Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault shall sound