Life & Wisdom Quote by Ovid

A sly reminder that talk is cheap, the line turns promises into a kind of currency and notes how easily anyone can appear rich when only words are required. To be a millionaire here is not to possess gold but to traffic in assurances that cost nothing to mint. The metaphor exposes an economy where value is declared rather than delivered, where abundance is verbal and scarcity is follow-through.

Ovid knew this dynamic well. In his witty, worldly Ars Amatoria, he treats courtship as a game of skill, and one of its tools is the promise. He even gives the Latin form of the idea: pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest - anyone can be rich in promises. The line is both playful and cutting. It functions as practical advice about what people do to win favor, and as satire about how easily desire and vanity are flattered by words. Beneath the joke lies a Roman anxiety about fides, the virtue of trustworthiness. A promise without the intention or capacity to fulfill it cheapens that civic glue, turning social bonds into a market of inflated claims.

The observation travels well beyond love poetry. Politicians, advertisers, and entrepreneurs often spend promises as if they were inexhaustible, banking on hope and postponing the reckoning. The result is a kind of moral inflation: the more effortlessly promises are made, the less each is worth. Real wealth, in this frame, is measured not in the volume of assurances but in the costly act of keeping them.

There is no cynicism required to appreciate the line, only clear-eyed recognition. Words can open doors, soothe fears, and spark ambition, but their credibility depends on delivery. Appearances of abundance are easy; substance is hard. Be generous with hope, careful with pledges, and shrewd in weighing what others spend so freely.