Fures fores, frugi intro! Thieves out, profit in!

-Anonymous
c.1c  AD  Graffito found in Pompeii. In Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum I V, 4278.

In all labour there is profit: but thetalkof the lips tendeth only to penury.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs14:23.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all isvanity.What profit hatha manof all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes1:2^4.

Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

-Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett
  The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Toda la cristiandad debe tomar alegr|¤a y hacer grandes fiestas, y dar gracias solemnes a la SantaTrinidad, con muchas oraciones solemnes por el tanto ensalzamiento que habra¤  n, en torna¤  ndose tantos pueblos a nuestra Santa Fe, y despue¤  s por los bienes temporales que no solamente a la Espan‹  a, mas a todos los cristianos tendra¤  n aqu |¤ refigerio y ganancia. All Christendom ought to feel joyful and make great Compton-Burnett celebrations and give solemn thanks to the HolyTrinity with many solemn prayers for the great exaltation which it will have, in the turning of so many people to our holy faith, and afterwards for material benefits, since not only Spain but all Christians will hence have refreshment and profit.

-Columbus, Christopher Spanish name  Cristo¤  bal Colo¤  n
  Carta del descubrimiento (translated as The Letter in Spanish of Christopher Columbus,1889).

   If capital isgrowing rapidly, wages may rise; the profit of capital rises incomparably more rapidly. The material position of the worker has improved, but at the cost of his social position. The social gulf that divides him from the capitalist has widened.

-Marx, Karl Heinrich
  'Wage Labour and Capital', collected in Robert C  Tucker (ed)  The Marx^Engels Reader (2nd edn,1972), p.211.

I'm not so artistic that I despise profit.

-Olivier, Laurence Kerr, Baron
Attributed.

Glorious deeds are not embraced by democracies, least of all by merchants, who, being by their nature intent on profit, loathe those splendid things that cannot be achieved without expense.

-Pius II real name Enea Silvio de Piccolomini
  Commentaries. Quoted inJ H Plumb (ed) The Horizon Book of the Renaissance (1961, new edn by Penguin,1982).

The rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension, of the society.On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.

-Smith, Adam
  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.11, conclusion.

Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest; Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain, And virtue sank the deeper in his breast; Such profit he of envy could obtain.

-Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of
  'Wyatt resteth here'.

It was my duty to have loved the highest; It surely was my profit had I known: It would have been my pleasure had I seen. We needs must love the highest when we see it, Not Lancelot, nor another.

-Tennyson
  Idylls of the King,'Guinevere', l.652^6.