Of Wealth and Virtue

Pretty wise for a 33-year-old who had been brought up by a single mother...

"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails
in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as
only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things
will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real
disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable
member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that
awaits our State constitution, as well as all others."

-- Alexander Hamilton (speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 1788)

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge,
editor, II, 26.