111 Quotes About Paying Debts To Motivate Your Debt Free Journey

Need a bit of motivation on your debt free journey? These motivational quotes about paying debts might help.

Let’s be honest: paying off debt is difficult.

Even with encouragement and extra income it can be hard to stay on track while chipping away at balances. That’s why you need to continually find motivation in things like visual trackers, money affirmations or these quotes about paying debts.

111 Quotes About Paying Debts To Motivate Your Debt Free Journey

If you are motivated by inspirational quotes then this post will provide a boost to your debt free journey. In this list we’ve compiled:

  • quotes about debt
  • quotes about the dangers of debt
  • motivational quotes about paying debt
  • quotes for your debt free journey
  • biblical quotes about paying debts
  • Dave Ramsey quotes about debt and money

Between all of these different types of quotes you are sure to find some inspiration to keep going.

Quotes About Debt

Debt enables many people to live a lifestyle they can’t actually afford. These quotes about debt show many recurring themes about carrying debt on items.

Are you ready to pay off your debt? You will be after reading these quotes:

  1. “Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” – Nathan W. Morris
  2. “Just because you can buy it, doesn’t mean you can afford it.” – Suze Orman
  3. “Debt basically enables people to live a lie.” – Rachel Cruze
  4. “Rich people plan for three generations. Poor people plan for Saturday night.” – Gloria Steinem
  5. “Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.” – Ogden Nash
  6. “When you buy a bigger house, another luxury car, or a fancy boat, you are showing people that you used to have money.” – Christopher Manske
  7. “The basic thing with frugality is: IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT, DON’T BUY IT.” – Harken Headers
  8. “Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”– Zig Ziglar
  9. “[Credit is a system whereby] a person who can’t pay, gets another person who can’t pay, to guarantee that he can pay.” – Charles Dickens
  10. “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.” –Marie Forleo
  11. “A good name is still to be preferred over great riches. Especially it is to be preferred to the appearance of riches, acquired with nothing down and nothing to pay for 2 months.” – Ezra Taft Benson
  12. “Creditors have better memories than debtors.” – Benjamin Franklin
  13. “One of the greatest disservices you can do a man is to lend him money that he can’t pay back.” – Jesse H Jones
  14. “Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.” – Ezra Pound
  15. “Don’t let your mouth write a check that your ass can’t cash, son.” – Charles Portis
  16. “Debt is a prolific mother of folly and of crime.” – Benjamin Disraeli
  17. “I make myself rich by making my wants few.” – Henry David Thoreau
  18. “Rich people believe ‘I create my life.” Poor people believe ‘Life happens to me’” – T. Harv Eker
  19. “It’s not your salary that makes you rich, it’s your spending habits.” – Charles A. Jaffe

Quotes About The Danger Of Debt

Do you think debt is dangerous? Or is it just a way of life for people? Many thought leaders past and present have been quoted speaking about debt and the danger of carrying debt.

These quotes might be helpful to wake you up to the reality of being buried in debt:

  1. “To grasp why people bury themselves in debt, you don’t need to study interest rate: you need to study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism.” – Morgan Housel
  2. “Debt can turn a free, happy person into a bitter human being.” – Michael Mihalik
  3. “Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.” – Josh Billings
  4. “Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.” – American Proverb
  5. “The man who never has money enough to pay his debts has too much of something else.” – James Lendall Basford
  6. “Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt.” – Henrik Ibsen
  7. “Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.” – Samuel Johnson
  8. “Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think.” – Noam Chomsky
  9. “It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.” – Rutherford B. Hayes
  10. “Debt on anything that depreciates is disastrous.” – Orrin Woodward
  11. “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.” – Victor Hugo
  12. “Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift… The hangover comes the day after.” – Joyce Brothers 
  13. “Interest works night and day; in fair weather and in foul. It gnaws at a man’s substance with invisible teeth.” – Henry Ward Beecher
  14. “Out of debt, out of danger.” – Jerry Voorhis
  15.  “Debt is the worst poverty.” –Thomas Fuller
  16.  “Debt is great source of inner unhappiness.” – Debasish Mridha
  17. “Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen pounds; result, happiness. Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty-one pounds; result, misery.” – Charles Dickens

Motivational Quotes About Paying Debt

These quotes about paying debt show how debt payoff can be difficult but necessary. Debt freedom is liberating to people.

These motivational quotes about paying debt prove it:

  1. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” -Nelson Mandela
  2. “Pay off your debt first. Freedom from debt is worth more than any amount you can earn.” – Mark Cuban
  3. “Wherever you are, be all there.” –Jim Elliot
  4. “It’s always too early to quit.” –Norman Vincent Peale
  5. “All you can change is yourself, but sometimes that changes everything.” –Gary W. Goldstein
  6. “A healthy and debt free living person is the richest and the happiest.” – Sushmitha Maddula
  7. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” –C.S. Lewis
  8. “We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” –Max Depree
  9. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” –Napoleon Hill
  10. “The stronger the why, the easier the how becomes.” –Jim Rohn
  11. “Doubting yourself is normal. Letting it stop you is a choice.” –Mel Robbins
  12. “You’re never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.” –Schreiber
  13.  “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” –George Halas
  14. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” –Vince Lombardi
  15. “Without self discipline, success is impossible, period.” –Lou Holtz
  16. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” –Mark Twain
  17. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” –Confucius
  18. “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” –Oscar Wilde
  19. “The middle is messy. But it’s also where the magic happens.” –Brene Brown
  20. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill

Quotes For Your Debt Free Journey

Paying off debt can be difficult and for many people is a journey that takes many years. During that time you will need motivation to continue your debt free journey. Remember to keep going because you can be debt free!

The follow quotes and sayings can provide inspiration during this time:

  1. “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” 
  2.  “Old ways won’t open new doors.”
  3.  “A little progress every day adds up to big results.”
  4. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”
  5. “Work for it more than you hope for it.”
  6. “Get into the habit of asking yourself, ‘Does this support the lifestyle I’m trying to create?’”
  7. “Surround yourself with people who push you to be your best self.”
  8. “It’s a slow process, but quitting won’t speed it up.”
  9. “Discipline is doing what needs to be done even when you don’t want to do it.”
  10. “The distance between your dreams and reality is called action.”
  11. “Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.”
  12. “Visualize your highest self and start showing up as her.”
  13. “If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”
  14. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
  15. “Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take towards reaching that goal.”
  16. “You will never always be motivated, so you must learn to be disciplined.”
  17. “Act like the person you want to become.”
  18.  “Where you are a year from now is a reflection of the choices you choose to make right now.”
  19. “One day you will thank yourself for never giving up.”
  20.  “You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.”
  21. “When you focus on the good, the good gets better.”
  22. “Keep going, because you did not come this far only to just come this far.”
  23. “The struggle is part of the journey. Everyone goes through it. Keep going and don’t give up.”
  24. “When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.”
  25. “The key to success is to focus on goals, not obstacles.”
  26. “Everyday you have a choice – stay the same or change.”
  27. “Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.”
  28. “Every next level of your life will demand a different version of you.”
  29. “Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” –Anonymous
  30. “If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.” –Anonymous
  31. “Just keep going. Be patient. Results take time, but if you’re consistent they will come.”
  32. “When you’re ready to give up, you’re halfway there.”
  33. “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”

Bible Quotes About Paying Debts

The Bible actually has plenty to say about money and paying off debts. There are many verses that speak on the subject and encourage people to avoid debt.

Here are some biblical quotes about debt that might help you:

  1. “If you are too lazy to plow, do not expect a harvest.” –Proverbs 20:4
  2. “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” – Proverbs 22:7
  3. “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.” – Psalm 37:21
  4. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” – Romans 13:8
  5. “Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” – Romans 13:7
  6. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” – Luke 14:28
  7. “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” – Luke 6:30
  8. “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.” – Proverbs 13:11
  9. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” – Matthew 6:12
  10. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.” – Proverbs 3:27

Dave Ramsey Quotes About Debt & Money

Dave Ramsey is the number one personal finance guru that helps people get out of debt. He has inspired and encouraged many people to follow the financial peace roadmap out of debt.

Here are some of Dave Ramsey’s most famous quotes about debt:

  1. “There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt.”– Dave Ramsey
  2. “The decision to go into debt alters the course condition of your life. You no longer own it. You are owned.” – Dave Ramsey
  3. “Nothing happens without focus. Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it one step at a time.” –Dave Ramsey
  4. “Earning a lot of money is not the key to prosperity. How you handle it is.” –Dave Ramsey
  5. “Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses. They’re broke.” –Dave Ramsey
  6. “If you live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else.” – Dave Ramsey
  7. ” Your children are watching you, and they’ll learn how to handle money like you do it. More is caught than taught.” – Dave Ramsey
  8. “You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” – Dave Ramsey
  9.  “You can’t be in debt and win. It doesn’t work.” – Dave Ramsey
  10. “You can’t get out of debt while keeping the same lifestyle that got you there.” – Dave Ramsey
  11. “Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.” – Dave Ramsey

Want more Dave Ramsey debt payoff inspiration? Check out these posts:

Financial Bundle: Budgeting, Savings, Debt Payoff

This financial planner bundle is a grouping of everything you need to plan your budget, grow your savings, and achieve your debt payoff. It is perfect for anyone who wants an all-in-one solution to get started and get organized!

Is It Possible To Live Debt Free?

In a society so entrenched in using debt, is it even possible to live without debt?

Luckily it is! There are many examples of people who live debt free lives. They carry no debt at all and even fewer worries since their monthly expenses are not weighed down by payments.

Getting out of debt is difficult. It can take years (it took me two years to pay off $43,000). But with consistency and discipline it is possible.

Want to start your own journey toward living a debt free life?

Start out with these steps:

Paying Off Your Debt

Hopefully these quotes about debt inspire you to get rid of the debt in your life. Start out by eliminating high interest debt and then evaluate your plan from there.

Maybe you want to start a mortgage payoff journey and live completely debt free – it’s what we aim to do personally!

Need help paying off your debt? Not sure where to start?

Check out these debt payoff posts:

Mary is the founder of Pennies Not Perfection where she shares her journey to build wealth through online income. She quit her day job in 2021 after she paid off her debt and doubled her 9-5 salary.

Mary's favorite free financial tool is Personal Capital. She uses their free tools to track net worth and work toward to financial freedom.

Her favorite investment platform is M1 Finance, where she built a custom portfolio for free with no fees. She shares her portfolio growth and savings progress every month on YouTube.