Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[student teacher]

Hello teachers,

From today's CNN News article, this is a Bill Gates's comment :"I believe with great wealth comes great responsibility..."

I may know what he would mean, but I can't understand the "with" used after "believe".
I usually realize the usage of believe, "believe that~" or "believe in~".
So this "believe with" usage is hard to understand for me.

Please help me.
Sincerely.

[Jintii]

Actually, believe with is not a phrasal verb here. Bill Gates means:

I believe that great responsibility comes with great wealth.

He just reversed the order of the phrases in the sentence.

There is a more common saying: With great power comes great responsibility.

[student teacher]

Dear Mr./Ms. Jintii,

Thank you for your reply.

So, may I ask one more question?
Does "great responsibility comes with great wealth" mean "those who have great wealth should owe great responsibility"?
If so, can't we say " great wealth comes with great responsibility", or isn't this a natural phrase?

Please give me advice.
Sincerely.

[CP]

So, may I ask one more question?
Does "great responsibility comes with great wealth" mean "those who have great wealth should owe great responsibility"?
If so, can't we say " great wealth comes with great responsibility", or isn't this a natural phrase?

I would say that Gates's sentence means that having great wealth places a great responsibility on the person to use the money wisely. One does not "owe responsibility," but responsibility means that a person ought to take care of what he or she is responsible for.

You could say, "Great wealth comes with great responsibility," that is, it is grammatically correct, but that sentence implies that responsibility makes a person wealthy, and that isn't so. So it is natural but not accurate. Maybe you would want to say, "Great wealth brings / carries / imposes great responsibility."

Yours truly, CP

[student teacher]

Dear Mr./Ms. CP

Thank you for your answer.
It is great help for me, and I can understand well.

Thank you so much.