One man to live in pleasure and wealth, whiles all other weap and smart for it, that is the part not of a king, but of a jailor. - Thomas More

They wonder much to hear that gold which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has value, should yet be thought of less value than this metal. That a man of lead, who has no more sense than a log of wood, and is as bad as he is foolish, should have many wise and good men to serve him, only because he has a great heap of that metal...

No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.