For as we see that they who make an honest livelihood by commerce, by industry, by forming the public revenue, have occasion for their earnings; so, whoever sees at your house the crowds of accusers and judges together; whoever sees rich and guilty criminals plotting the corruption of trials with you as their adviser, and your bargainings for pay for the distribution of patronage, your pecuniary interventions in the contests of candidates, your dispatching your freedmen to fleece and plunder the provinces; whoever calls to mind your dispossessing your neighbors, your depopulating the country by your oppressions, your confederacies with slaves, with freedmen, and with clients; the vacating of estates; the proscriptions of the wealthy; the corporations massacred, and the harvest of the times of Sylla; the wills you have forged, and the many men you have made away with; in short, that all things were venal with you in your levies, your decrees, your own votes, and the votes of others; the forum, your house, your speaking, and your silence; who must not think that such a man confesses he has occasion for all he has acquired?
—from Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 6
Even though I have learned to live with very little, I would not necessarily object to becoming rich, as long as it was the fruit of my own labors, and as long as I could maintain such a lifestyle with a clear conscience. I will respectfully refuse, however, once you ask me to profit from another’s work, or to treat my neighbor unfairly so I can get ahead.
You laugh, of course, because it sounds like a pipe dream. Perhaps you will have to look a little harder before you find a man of integrity who also happens to be prosperous, but never say that money is the problem—how we choose to earn it, and what we choose to do with it, is what will make or break us. Judge by the measure of integrity, not by that of property, whether the pot is overflowing with gold or turns out to be completely empty.
Though I have seen enough of corruption in business and in government, I have the most experience of graft in the lofty institutions of the Church, which has become expert at paying out the most to those who achieve the least, all under the guise of holiness. Yet whether they are bankers, lawyers, or bishops, those who are consumed by avarice are fairly easy to recognize, if only you look past the clever marketing.
What they all share in common is the tragic state of affairs that Cicero describes: their lives are filled with all sorts of intrigue, deceit, exploitation, and betrayal. I could surely go on for pages and pages, describing the nastiness I have seen behind closed doors, where the schemers believe no one can expose their offenses, but I can hardly top Cicero’s biting account of a day in the life of Crassus. I find a good number of passages from Charles Dickens have much the same rousing effect.
You might say that the moneygrubber doesn’t deserve all the benefits he receives, and yet perhaps we should pity him, since whatever fortune he claims to acquire still leaves him in abject misery. Instead of having everything he needs, he will never have enough to meet his demands. The proof is in that constant conniving, a crippling anxiety that never gives him a moment’s rest.
Even though I have learned to live with very little, I would not necessarily object to becoming rich, as long as it was the fruit of my own labors, and as long as I could maintain such a lifestyle with a clear conscience. I will respectfully refuse, however, once you ask me to profit from another’s work, or to treat my neighbor unfairly so I can get ahead.
You laugh, of course, because it sounds like a pipe dream. Perhaps you will have to look a little harder before you find a man of integrity who also happens to be prosperous, but never say that money is the problem—how we choose to earn it, and what we choose to do with it, is what will make or break us. Judge by the measure of integrity, not by that of property, whether the pot is overflowing with gold or turns out to be completely empty.
Though I have seen enough of corruption in business and in government, I have the most experience of graft in the lofty institutions of the Church, which has become expert at paying out the most to those who achieve the least, all under the guise of holiness. Yet whether they are bankers, lawyers, or bishops, those who are consumed by avarice are fairly easy to recognize, if only you look past the clever marketing.
What they all share in common is the tragic state of affairs that Cicero describes: their lives are filled with all sorts of intrigue, deceit, exploitation, and betrayal. I could surely go on for pages and pages, describing the nastiness I have seen behind closed doors, where the schemers believe no one can expose their offenses, but I can hardly top Cicero’s biting account of a day in the life of Crassus. I find a good number of passages from Charles Dickens have much the same rousing effect.
You might say that the moneygrubber doesn’t deserve all the benefits he receives, and yet perhaps we should pity him, since whatever fortune he claims to acquire still leaves him in abject misery. Instead of having everything he needs, he will never have enough to meet his demands. The proof is in that constant conniving, a crippling anxiety that never gives him a moment’s rest.
—Reflection written in 5/1999
IMAGE: Quentin Matsys, The Purchase Agreement (1515)
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