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Who really said it

If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it

Not Dorothy Parker — a saying centuries older Martin Luther 1483–1546 · German theologian of the Reformation
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Parker did use the line — in her 1956 Paris Review interview — but she introduced it as Maurice Baring’s remark, and Baring’s own novel had credited it to Swift. Quote Investigator traces the thought back to Martin Luther’s Table Talk ↗, published in German in 1566 and in English in 1659.

Last verified 14 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it” Martin Luther, Table Talk (German 1566; Henrie Bell's English translation, 1659, p. 90); the modern wording is widely misattributed to Dorothy Parker, who credited Maurice Baring. Via quotle.info · Verbatim: “Our Lord God commonly giveth Riches to such gross Asses, to whom hee affordeth nothing else that is good.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Dorothy Parker. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.

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In context

Evoking the world of Martin Luther — German priest, theologian and seminal figure of the Reformation. Theme: "If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Earliest documented form
Table Talk
Speaker
Martin Luther, recorded by his students
Published
German, 1566; English, 1659
Translation
Capt. Henrie Bell, second edition, 1659, p. 90

Our Lord God commonly giveth Riches to such gross Asses, to whom hee affordeth nothing else that is good.

The earliest form Quote Investigator documents ↗, quoted from Henrie Bell’s 1659 English translation of Luther’s Table Talk. The wording now pinned on Dorothy Parker is far smoother, and very much later.

Quote Investigator: what the Lord God thinks of money

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s survey of the saying ↗ prints a chronology running from Luther (German 1566, English 1659) through Matthew Poole (1696), Richard Steele in The Tatler (1710), Jonathan Swift (1720), Alexander Pope (1727), Anne Marsh-Caldwell (1851), Thomas Guthrie (1861) and Austin O’Malley (1915).
  • The same page quotes Parker’s 1956 Paris Review interview directly: “I like to think of Maurice Baring’s remark: ‘If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom he gives it.’” She is quoting, and says so in the same sentence.
  • Quote Investigator adds that Baring’s 1927 novel Tinker’s Leave has the character Troumestre credit the thought to Swift — so even Parker’s named source was passing it along.
  • Wikiquote files this exact popular wording under Dorothy Parker → Misattributed ↗, pointing to Thomas Guthrie and to Pope’s Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727).

No copyright status is asserted, because this exact modern wording matches no source we could document. It reads as a smoothed version of what Parker said in The Paris Review in 1956, which is in copyright; the older forms it descends from — Bell’s 1659 English Table Talk, Swift in 1720, Pope in 1727, Guthrie in 1861 — are long in the public domain.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Often misattributed

The line is quoted as pure Dorothy Parker: the perfect acid remark about the rich, from the woman best equipped to make it. Parker did say it, in print — and in the same breath told her interviewer it belonged to somebody else.

Dorothy Parker Quoted, not authored

In her 1956 Paris Review interview Parker introduces the line as “Maurice Baring’s remark”, not her own — Quote Investigator quotes the passage in full ↗.

Maurice Baring Repeater, not author

Quote Investigator records ↗ that Baring’s 1927 novel Tinker’s Leave gives the thought to a character who credits it to Swift, rather than claiming it.

Jonathan Swift Ancestor, not author

Quote Investigator documents ↗ a Swift letter of August 1720 with a related but different wording — the idea, not this sentence.

Martin Luther Earliest ancestor

Quote Investigator’s chronology ↗ begins with Luther’s Table Talk, published in German in 1566 and in English in 1659.

It is a commonplace Quote Investigator traces across 460 years ↗, and Parker never claimed it as hers.

Context

Why it mattered

Parker is a magnet for other people’s epigrams, and this one fits her so well that nobody checks. It has her cadence, her contempt, and her subject.

What makes the case unusual is that the correction is sitting inside the very interview people quote from. Parker names Maurice Baring in the same sentence. The attribution did not survive because the evidence was buried — it survived because the line was too good to interrupt.

Parker named her source in the same sentence. Nobody quoted that part.

Read the full story

Quote Investigator’s chronology shows the thought surfacing again and again in different clothes: Luther on the “gross Asses” God hands riches to (1566/1659), Matthew Poole on riches thrown away “upon the basest of men” (1696), Richard Steele in The Tatler (1710), Swift in a letter of 1720, Pope in Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727), Thomas Guthrie in 1861 and Austin O’Malley in 1915.

By the time it reached Parker in 1956 it had been in circulation, in one form or another, for centuries — which is why she treated it as a remark worth recalling rather than one worth claiming.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Power Truth Humility

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator — what the Lord God thinks of moneyquoteinvestigator.com

The full chronology from Luther in 1566 to Parker in 1956, with the Paris Review passage quoted.
Wikiquote — Dorothy Parker (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Files this exact popular wording under Misattributed and points to Guthrie and Pope.
Dorothy Parkeren.wikipedia.org

Biography of the writer the line is usually credited to.
Maurice Baringen.wikipedia.org

The English man of letters Parker herself named as her source.
Martin Lutheren.wikipedia.org

Biography of the man whose Table Talk carries the earliest documented form.
Table Talk (Luther)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the collection of Luther’s recorded dinner-table remarks.

The author

About Martin Luther

Martin Luther

1483–1546 · German priest, theologian and seminal figure of the Reformation

Martin Luther (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author and hymnwriter, and the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Table Talk, the collection in which the earliest form of this saying appears, gathers remarks his students recorded at his dinner table; it was first published in German in 1566, after his death, and reached English in Henrie Bell’s translation of 1659.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Luther, Martin. Dris Martini Lutheri Colloquia Mensalia: Or, Dr Martin Luther’s Divine Discourses at His Table. Translated by Capt. Henrie Bell. 2nd ed. London: Printed for William Throppe, 1659, p. 90. Chronology and later variants documented in Quote Investigator, entry dated 28 May 2025 (quoteinvestigator.com/2025/05/28/god-money/).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it’?” Last verified 14 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-you-want-to-know-what-the-lord-god-thinks-of-money-just/

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