--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The rich never give you anything (dixit…" description: "\"“The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is unrelenting; it always screws you. Those who are rich in intelligence, power and beauty don't g..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg" --- # The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is… ![“The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is unrelenting; it always screws you. Those who are rich in intelligence, power and beauty don't give much away either. They make you pay all the more for the fact that their capital is symbolic. Comparing that unrelenting face of wealth with…” quote by Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg) > ““The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is unrelenting; it always screws you. Those who are rich in intelligence, power and beauty don't give much away either. They make you pay all the more for the fact that their capital is symbolic. Comparing that unrelenting face of wealth with Countess Bathory who tortured young peasant girls. She at least was tortured herself, walled up in total darkness, in absolute silence and her own excrement, with a hole in the wall for food to be passed through. The bloodbaths she had taken gave her the savage energy to hold out for two years in the dark. Thinking of those happy days while walking around in the backstreets of Rome. Here everything is deeply incestuous, though in a different way from Elisabeth Bathory for whom all those peasant girls were her daughters whose incest was to be sealed with blood. But that was a sadistic and violent incest, whereas the whole Roman culture practises a gentle, spiritual incest. Akin to fetishism: that of the mamma, the sister, the young adolescent, the Virgin and the Saints, all swirling about in the same incestuous spiral. The carnal perfection of the detail, the carnal softness of the marble, the lewd transparency of the fountains - little navels of the squares set deep in the backstreets - and the water which streams down from them. The miracle of a faultless urbanity, a total civility - even the ruins share in this. However far back you go in Italy, there has never been any nature. There has only ever been a baroque figuration.”” [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Wealth and power are portrayed as relentless, symbolic forces that dominate and exploit, while cultural decadence masks deeper moral emptiness. **In simple terms:** Wealth is oppressive and culture can hide moral decay. Key Takeaway Recognize symbolic power and seek authentic values. Themes power wealth culture decadence symbolism Mood critical reflective philosophical Type analysis commentary critical When to use this quote - examining financial systems - analyzing urban art - questioning cultural narratives Key Concepts capitalism social critique urban alienation Questions to Reflect On - How does symbolic wealth shape personal values? - In what ways does urban beauty conceal moral decay? A Different Perspective Power structures can be invisible and internalized, limiting change. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Arbitrariness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arbitrariness-10290/) [Austerity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/austerity/) [Carnal Perfection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/carnal-perfection-4119402/) [Civilization](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civilization/) [Deeply Incestuous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deeply-incestuous-4119399/) [Happy days](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happy-days/) [Incest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/incest/) [Incestuous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/incestuous/) [Money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/money/) [Rich people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rich-people/) [Swirling Incestuous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/swirling-incestuous-4119400/) [Two years](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/two-years/) [Violent Incest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/violent-incest-4119401/) [Walking around](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/walking-around/) [Wealth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wealth/) ## Related quotes > [Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/every-established-order-tends-to-produce-the-naturalization-of-its/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-language-is-not-correct-then-what-is-said-is-not-what-is-meant-if-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Arbitrariness and true liberty are as distinct from each other that the empirical nature is distinct from the higher nature of man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/african-spir/arbitrariness-and-true-liberty-are-as-distinct-from-each-other-that/) [African Spir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/african-spir/) > [It is in the very nature of a beginning to carry with itself a measure of complete arbitrariness. Not only is it not bound…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-arendt/it-is-in-the-very-nature-of-a-beginning-to-carry-with-itself-a/) [Hannah Arendt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-arendt/) > [“Naturally there was the notion of private property as a pragmatic concept, for individuals or groups have a proclivity to tend to their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashim-shanker/naturally-there-was-the-notion-of-private-property-as-a-pragmatic/) [Ashim Shanker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ashim-shanker/) > [People are, by and large, quite poor at judging correct absolute values but are astute about determining relative values. Psychologists call this coherent arbitrariness,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-mauboussin/people-are-by-and-large-quite-poor-at-judging-correct-absolute-values/) [Michael Mauboussin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-mauboussin/) > [The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/igor-stravinsky/the-more-constraints-one-imposes-the-more-one-frees-one-s-self-and/) [Igor Stravinsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/igor-stravinsky/) > [I think the ideal situation for a family is to be completely incestuous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-s-burroughs/i-think-the-ideal-situation-for-a-family-is-to-be-completely/) [William S. Burroughs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-s-burroughs/) > [I think there can be incestuous love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaspar-noe/i-think-there-can-be-incestuous-love/) [Gaspar Noe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaspar-noe/) > [It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves; for the whole family of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-caleb-colton/it-is-with-nations-as-with-individuals-those-who-know-the-least-of/) [Charles Caleb Colton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-caleb-colton/) > [London is a small place, and it is very incestuous. People know where you live. Everybody is sort of on top of each other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeanette-winterson/london-is-a-small-place-and-it-is-very-incestuous-people-know-where/) [Jeanette Winterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeanette-winterson/) > [“He did just spell out the particulars of an incestuous menage a trois in the same breath he used to order wine.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-gable/he-did-just-spell-out-the-particulars-of-an-incestuous-menage-a-trois/) [Michelle Gable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-gable/) > [“Treating Abuse Today 3(4) pp. 26-33 TAT: I want to move back to an area that I'm not real comfortable asking you about, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-l-calof/treating-abuse-today-3-4-pp-26-33-tat-i-want-to-move-back-to-an-area/) [David L. Calof](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-l-calof/) > [The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-caleb-colton/the-whole-family-of-pride-and-ignorance-are-incestuous-and-mutually/) [Charles Caleb Colton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-caleb-colton/) > [“High school is such an incestuous little pool.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christina-lauren/high-school-is-such-an-incestuous-little-pool/) [Christina Lauren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christina-lauren/) ## More by Jean Baudrillard > [“The whole gestural system of work was also obscene, in sharp contrast to the miniaturized and abstract gestural system of control to which it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-whole-gestural-system-of-work-was-also-obscene-in-sharp-contrast/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [“We will live in this world, which for us has all the disquieting strangeness of the desert and of the simulacrum, with all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/we-will-live-in-this-world-which-for-us-has-all-the-disquieting/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [Holidays are in no sense an alternative to the congestion and bustle of the cities and work. Quite the contrary. People look to escape…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/holidays-are-in-no-sense-an-alternative-to-the-congestion-and-bustle/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/there-is-nothing-funny-about-halloween-this-sarcastic-festival/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [The sickly cultural pathos which the whole of France indulges in, that fetishism of the cultural heritage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-sickly-cultural-pathos-which-the-whole-of-france-indulges-in-that/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [“We need a visible past, a visible continuum, a visible myth of origin to reassure us as to our ends, since ultimately we have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/we-need-a-visible-past-a-visible-continuum-a-visible-myth-of-origin/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [History that repeats itself turns to farce. Farce that repeats itself turns to history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/history-that-repeats-itself-turns-to-farce-farce-that-repeats-itself/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [Perhaps our eyes are merely a blank film which is taken from us after our deaths to be developed elsewhere and screened as our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/perhaps-our-eyes-are-merely-a-blank-film-which-is-taken-from-us-after/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [If everything is perfect, language is useless. This is true for animals. If animals don't speak, it's because everything's perfect for them. If one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/if-everything-is-perfect-language-is-useless-this-is-true-for-animals/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [There exists, between people in love, a kind of capital held by each. This is not just a stock of affects or pleasure, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/there-exists-between-people-in-love-a-kind-of-capital-held-by-each/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/when-the-real-is-no-longer-what-it-used-to-be-nostalgia-assumes-its/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [With the truth, you need to get rid of it as soon as possible and pass it on to someone else. As with illness,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/with-the-truth-you-need-to-get-rid-of-it-as-soon-as-possible-and-pass/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [You have to know how to disappear.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/you-have-to-know-how-to-disappear/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [Large department stores, with their luxuriant abundance of canned goods, foods, and clothing, are like the primary landscape and the geometrical locus of affluence.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/large-department-stores-with-their-luxuriant-abundance-of-canned/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [The sad thing about artificial intelligence is that it lacks artifice and therefore intelligence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-sad-thing-about-artificial-intelligence-is-that-it-lacks-artifice/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) [Explore all 228 Jean Baudrillard quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) ## More Arbitrariness quotes > [Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/every-established-order-tends-to-produce-the-naturalization-of-its/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/igor-stravinsky/the-more-constraints-one-imposes-the-more-one-frees-one-s-self-and/) [Igor Stravinsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/igor-stravinsky/) > [“Naturally there was the notion of private property as a pragmatic concept, for individuals or groups have a proclivity to tend to their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashim-shanker/naturally-there-was-the-notion-of-private-property-as-a-pragmatic/) [Ashim Shanker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ashim-shanker/) > [It is in the very nature of a beginning to carry with itself a measure of complete arbitrariness. Not only is it not bound…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-arendt/it-is-in-the-very-nature-of-a-beginning-to-carry-with-itself-a/) [Hannah Arendt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-arendt/) > [Arbitrariness and true liberty are as distinct from each other that the empirical nature is distinct from the higher nature of man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/african-spir/arbitrariness-and-true-liberty-are-as-distinct-from-each-other-that/) [African Spir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/african-spir/) > [If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-language-is-not-correct-then-what-is-said-is-not-what-is-meant-if-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [People are, by and large, quite poor at judging correct absolute values but are astute about determining relative values. Psychologists call this coherent arbitrariness,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-mauboussin/people-are-by-and-large-quite-poor-at-judging-correct-absolute-values/) [Michael Mauboussin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-mauboussin/) [Browse all 8 Arbitrariness quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arbitrariness-10290/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is unrelenting; it always screws you. Those who are rich in intelligence, power and beauty don't give much away either. They make you pay all the more for the fact that their capital is symbolic. Comparing that unrelenting face of wealth with Countess Bathory who tortured young peasant girls. She at least was tortured herself, walled up in total darkness, in absolute silence and her own excrement, with a hole in the wall for food to be passed through. The bloodbaths she had taken gave her the savage energy to hold out for two years in the dark. Thinking of those happy days while walking around in the backstreets of Rome. Here everything is deeply incestuous, though in a different way from Elisabeth Bathory for whom all those peasant girls were her daughters whose incest was to be sealed with blood. But that was a sadistic and violent incest, whereas the whole Roman culture practises a gentle, spiritual incest. Akin to fetishism: that of the mamma, the sister, the young adolescent, the Virgin and the Saints, all swirling about in the same incestuous spiral. The carnal perfection of the detail, the carnal softness of the marble, the lewd transparency of the fountains - little navels of the squares set deep in the backstreets - and the water which streams down from them. The miracle of a faultless urbanity, a total civility - even the ruins share in this. However far back you go in Italy, there has never been any nature. There has only ever been a baroque figuration.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jean Baudrillard" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a-wealth-is-unrelenting-it/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Arbitrariness" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a-wealth-is-unrelenting-it/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e2/jean-baudrillard-1500_arbitrariness_the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a_2900182.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The rich never give you anything (dixit A.). Wealth is unrelenting; it always screws you. Those who are rich…” — Jean Baudrillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Jean Baudrillard", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“The rich never give you anything...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a-wealth-is-unrelenting-it/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-rich-never-give-you-anything-dixit-a-wealth-is-unrelenting-it/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```