Seneca · On the superficial blessings

Letters 115.12

Verses of poets also are added to the account—verses which lend fuel to our passions, verses in which wealth is praised as if it were the only credit and glory of mortal man. People seem to think that the immortal gods cannot give any better gift than wealth—or even possess anything better:

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 115.12, translated by Richard Mott Gummere