Meaning & Analysis
He is so greedy for his household’s gain that he would risk damnation to secure it—i.e., he’ll do anything, however sinful, if it benefits his house.
Insights
Ends over ethics
The ‘house profit’ becomes a trump card that justifies any means; moral red lines dissolve whenever advantage to the home or enterprise is at stake.
Faustian thrift
Unlike grand bargains for power, this is a petty pact—damnation for mere household savings—mocking the smallness of the price that buys a soul.
Collective alibi
‘For the house’ frames vice as duty; by claiming to act for family or firm, the agent launders selfishness through communal rhetoric.
Moral hazard of scarcity
Perceived want tilts choices toward risk and wrongdoing; the proverb flags how tight margins tempt people to rationalize harmful shortcuts.
Reputation as collateral
Pursuit of profit at any cost spends unseen assets—honor, trust, divine favor—so that the ledger that looks black now turns eternally red.
Household economy
In early modern society the ‘house’ was both moral unit and business; appeals to household welfare carried heavy pressure, making corner-cutting seem like stewardship rather than sin.
Sin scaled down
The line satirizes grand theological stakes applied to small commerce, insisting that even petty cheats engage cosmic consequences.
Rhetoric of necessity
Phrases like ‘for the children’ or ‘for the shop’ are persuasive shields; the proverb punctures this, warning that necessity-talk often masks appetite.
Comparative maxims
Kin to ‘He that gains hell has made an ill market’ and to ‘sell one’s soul,’ this version spotlights domestic profit as the seductive bait.
Psychology of self-licensing
Doing a little good (feeding the household) can license a little bad; the mind grants moral ‘credits’ that are then spent on transgression.
Rhetorical Devices
Hyperbole
Invoking Hell over ‘house profit’ exaggerates to expose the grotesque tradeoff between trivial gain and ultimate loss.
Metonymy
‘House’ stands for family, firm, and reputation; the building-name compresses a web of interests into a single beneficiary.
Antithesis
Temporal profit versus eternal punishment forms a stark moral contrast that sharpens the admonition.
Irony
The supposed nobility of acting ‘for the house’ is undercut by the ignoble price paid, revealing selfishness cloaked as duty.
Gnome (maxim)
A compact, proverbial sentence packages complex economic and theological critique into portable counsel.
Transcription
Quotations
(houses).
*Spoken of them that will do any Thing for Gain.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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