Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.

Our desires increase with our possessions.

Great wealth breeds great arrogance.

Sometimes wealth and power merely created the desire for more of the same.

[E]ssentially the effect of increasing the number of wealth holders is translated into increased competition for political positions.

With great wealth comes great pettiness.

The more you covet something, the more certain it is that you’ll lose it, and the more devastating the loss will be when it happens—which it will. (p. 216).

It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.

The amount of wealth produced is nowhere commensurate with the desire for wealth, and desire mounts with every additional opportunity for gratification.

The desire for power feeds off itself, growing as it devours.

The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world.

For many people the thrill of having more is intensified by the presence of those who have less. Waste is not the issue here. To many greedy individuals, power lies in withholding resources.

It does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants

You seem to have great possessions! How else can this be, but that you have preferred your own enjoyment to the consolation of the many? For the more you abound in wealth, the more you lack in love.