Skip to main content

Wealth & Money Quote by Sholom Aleichem

"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor"

About this Quote

Aleichem’s line lands like a punchline that refuses to stay funny. It slices “life” into four genres, then reveals that the genre you’re assigned isn’t a philosophical preference but a socioeconomic fate. The wise get a “dream” not because they’re blissfully detached, but because wisdom can blur the sharp edges of reality: distance, imagination, and inner freedom as survival tactics in a world that doesn’t reliably reward virtue. The fool gets a “game” because privilege of ignorance is its own cushion; when consequences don’t bite, everything feels like play.

Then Aleichem turns the knife. “Comedy for the rich” isn’t celebratory; it’s indictment. Comedy depends on misrecognition, on the ability to treat mishaps as harmless. Wealth makes suffering legible as entertainment, a temporary inconvenience, even a story you can laugh about later. For the poor, there’s no later. “Tragedy” signals inevitability, the crushing machinery of circumstance. It’s not that the poor are more melodramatic; it’s that the stakes are higher and the exits fewer.

Context matters: Aleichem wrote in the Jewish Pale of Settlement, amid poverty, precarity, and waves of upheaval. His fiction famously balances humor with dread; laughter becomes a method of telling the truth without being destroyed by it. This quote performs that balancing act in miniature. It’s social analysis disguised as a neat epigram, a reminder that “how you experience life” is often a luxury good.

Quote Details

TopicWisdom
Source
Later attribution: Empowered. Wealth, Health and You. Conquer the Three and ... (ANA RODRIGUEZ, 2019) modern compilationISBN: 9780244481360 · ID: fA2ZDwAAQBAJ
Text match: 95.68%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... Sholom Aleichem : LIFE IS ... A DREAM FOR THE WISE , A GAME FOR THE FOOL , A COMEDY FOR THE RICH , A TRAGEDY FOR THE POOR . Sholom Aleichem Mr. Eastwood has been actor , producer , composer , director and writer during his career in the ...
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Aleichem, Sholom. (2026, February 9). Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/life-is-a-dream-for-the-wise-a-game-for-the-fool-4507/

Chicago Style
Aleichem, Sholom. "Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor." FixQuotes. February 9, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/life-is-a-dream-for-the-wise-a-game-for-the-fool-4507/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor." FixQuotes, 9 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/life-is-a-dream-for-the-wise-a-game-for-the-fool-4507/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Sholom Add to List
Life: Dream for Wise, Game for Fool, Comedy for Rich, Tragedy for Poor
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Russia Flag

Sholom Aleichem (March 2, 1859 - May 13, 1916) was a Writer from Russia.

4 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Abraham Cahan, Author
Bernard Malamud, Novelist
Robin Williams, Comedian
Robin Williams