An embarrassment of riches is an idiom that means an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing, that originated in 1738 as John Ozell's translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726), by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.
Example: "All four of them have their own cars but there's no room in the driveway—an embarrassment of riches".
The idiom is also the title of other works:
- The Embarrassment of Riches, a 1918 drama film
- Embarrassment of Riches (EP), a 2006 music album by Elephant Micah
- The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, a history book by Simon Schama
- An Embarrassment of Riches a 2000 novel written by Filipino author Charlson Ong
Famous quotes containing the word riches:
“Therefore is nature ever the ally of Religion: lends her all her pomp and riches to the religious sentiment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)