margur verður af aurum api

Etymology
From +, the third person singular of  +  + , form of  +. Literally meaning "many become a monkey from money" or "money makes monkeys out of men".

The proverb is a reference to (quotation of) the seventh-fifth verse of the Hávamál, one of the books of the Poetic Edda.


 * Hávamál verse 47 in updated (Icelandic) spelling
 * Veit-a hinn
 * er vætki veit:
 * Margur verður af aurum api.
 * Maður er auðigur,
 * annar óauðigur,
 * skyli-t þann vítka vár.
 * English translation by Benjamin Thorpe
 * He (only) knows not
 * who knows nothing,
 * that many a one apes another.
 * One man is rich,
 * another poor:
 * let him not be thought blameworthy.
 * English translation by Henry A. Bellows
 * A man knows not,
 * if nothing he knows,
 * That gold oft apes begets;
 * One man is wealthy
 * and one is poor,
 * Yet scorn for him none should know.
 * English translation by Olive Bray
 * He that learns nought will never know
 * how one is the fool of another,
 * for if one be rich another is poor
 * and for that should bear no blame.
 * English translation by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor
 * The half wit does not know that gold
 * Makes apes of many men:
 * One is rich, one is poor,
 * There is no blame in that.

Proverb

 * 1) possession of money or worldly goods can make fools out of people