Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a business or corporate debtor ("involuntary bankruptcy") in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring. In the majority of cases, however, bankruptcy is initiated by the debtor (a "voluntary bankruptcy" that is filed by the insolvent individual or organization). An involuntary bankruptcy petition may not be filed against an individual consumer debtor who is not engaged in business.
- Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author
A - FEdit
- Bankruptcy in my opinion ever was and yet is considered as a crime, whatever tradesmen may now think of it. It was anciently punished with corporal punishment.
- Abney, J., Tribe v. Webber (1744), Willes, 466 n. (a); in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
- Taking out a commission of bankruptcy is a well-known mode of recovering a debt.
- Bayley, J., Guthrie v. Fisk (1824), 3 B & C. 183; in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
- Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.
- Frank Borman, Chairman of Eastern Airlines, reported in Journal of Business Education, Volume 58 (1982), p. 200.
G - LEdit
- It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery, and be sold.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: second series (1844), p. 173.
- He who desireth to sleep soundly, let him buy the bed of a bankrupt.
- English proverb, reported in Henry George Bohn, John Ray, A Hand-Book of Proverbs (1899), p. 19.
- The privileges of creditors to come in under a bankruptcy, and of bankrupts to be discharged, are co-extensive and commensurate.
- Lord Hardwicke, Ex parte Groome (1740), 1 Atk. 115; in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
- 'How did you go bankrupt?' Bill asked. 'Two ways,' Mike said. 'Gradually and then suddenly.'
- Ernest Hemingway,The Sun Also Rises (1926).
- A woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world: it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul on the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy of the heart.
- Bankruptcy is considered as a crime, and the bankrupt in the old laws is called an offender: but it is a principle of natural justice, and of our law, that actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.
- Lord Kenyon, C.J., Fowler v. Padget (1798), 7 T. R. 514; in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
M - REdit
- Such was the origin of that debt which has since become the greatest prodigy that ever perplexed the sagacity and confounded the pride of statesmen and philosophers. At every stage in the growth of that debt the nation has set up the same cry of anguish and despair. At every stage in the growth of that debt it has been seriously asserted by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still the debt went on growing; and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as ever.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England, vol. 8 (The Complete Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 8), chapter 19, p. 70 (1899).
- A man may be a bankrupt, and yet be honest, for he may become so by accident, and not of purpose to deceive his creditors.
- Roll, C.J., Rooke v. Smith (1651), Style's Rep. 274; in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
- Our national debt after all is an internal debt owed not only by the Nation but to the Nation. If our children have to pay interest on it they will pay that interest to themselves. A reasonable internal debt will not impoverish our children or put the Nation into bankruptcy.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to the American Retail Federation, Washington, D.C. (May 22, 1939); reported in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939 (1941), p. 351.
- One of the bad effects of an anti-intellectual philosophy, such as that of Bergson, is that it thrives upon the errors and confusions of the intellect. Hence it is led to prefer bad thinking to good, to declare every momentary difficulty insoluble, and to regard every foolish mistake as revealing the bankruptcy of intellect and the triumph of intuition.