Default Quotes

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.

When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. The liberation of the public revenue, if it has ever been brought about at all, has always been brought about by bankruptcy; sometimes by an avowed one, but always by a real one, though frequently by a pretend payment.

When one has no particular talent for anything, one takes to the pen.

I think we ought to all take a step back and remember where we were 24, 48 hours ago, a week ago, two weeks ago - the prospect that was hanging out there that America would not honor its obligations for the first time in its history, and the impact that would have on our economy and the global economy.

The vastest earthly Day Is shrunken small By one Defaulting Face Behind a Pall.

I would borrow money all day long, if the cost of borrowing is less than the expected return.

For the next three years, we're going to see different economies work out different problems. For European economies, especially Greece, it would be through default.

If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

In this business, if you don't pay your debts you're finished.

No nation can miss interest or principle payments without some negative impact on its credit standing.

Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.

Civilization does not have to perish. The brutes are winning only by default.

The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country.

The only remedy for Mexico's poverty which has appealed to our politicians has been to contract foreign loans, which have never been paid, and to invite foreign capital to invest in Mexico.

There can be no such thing as a state's right to default on a national duty.

We also get thousands of suggestions. The default answer is always no.

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

There's no time, place, or purpose of a government shutdown or default.

We either live with intention or exist by default.

Trailer home borrowers, mostly near the bottom of the economic ladder, often default on their loans.

We believe that it is very important that we have hopefully averted what would have been the most substantial headwind of all, which is a default for the first time in our history, and that that will contribute to a more positive environment that we hope will allow for greater growth and job creation.

Patriots don't let their nation default.

Just because science so far has failed to explain something, such as consciousness, to say it follows that the facile, pathetic explanations which religion has produced somehow by default must win the argument is really quite ridiculous.

I think at the end of the day we have to raise the debt ceiling, because America pays its bills.