money talks

Idioms  

1. Wealth has great influence, as in Big contributors to campaigns are generally rewarded with important posts—in politics money talks. The idea behind this idiom was stated by Euripides in the fifth century b.c., and some 2,000 years later Erasmus spoke of “the talking power of money” (Adagia, 1532). The precise current locution, however, only began to be used about 1900.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

money talks

As ever, the loyalists will go where the money talks.

From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026

I asked three others to dish on their money talks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

Of course, money talks - from the world's top-20 richest clubs, according to the Deloitte Football Money League 2024 external-link, 13 of them played in this season's Champions League and 10 reached the last 16.

From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2024

You know that expression, "money talks, wealth whispers"? Well, these two haven't whispered a day in their lives.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2023

There are ten languages spoken in South Harvey, and money talks in all of them, and one dollar does as much as another, and that’s all there is to it.”

From In the Heart of a Fool by William Allen White