[25]
8. Again, men seek riches partly to supply
the needs of life, partly to secure the enjoyment of
pleasure. With those who cherish higher ambitions,1
the desire for wealth is entertained with a view to
power and influence and the means of bestowing
favours; Marcus Crassus, for example, not long since
[p. 27]
declared that no amount of wealth was enough for
the man who aspired to be the foremost citizen of
the state, unless with the income from it he could
maintain an army. Fine establishments and the
comforts of life in elegance and abundance also
afford pleasure, and the desire to secure it gives rise
to the insatiable thirst for wealth. Still, I do not
mean to find fault with the accumulation of property,
provided it hurts nobody, but unjust acquisition of
it is always to be avoided.
1 The dangers of ambition.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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