How unfortunate and how narrowing a thing it is for a man to have wealth who makes a god of it instead of a servant.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Money, as it increases, becomes either the master or the slave of ts owner.
Wealth is the Conjurer's Devil, Whom, when he thinks he hath, the Devil hath him.
Things are in the saddle. And ride mankind.
All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them.
We are all slaves to the shining metal.
The reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.
It's a law of life: the tyranny of things.
The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.
I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.