"THE GREATEST LUXURY OF RICHES IS THAT THEY ENABLE YOU TO ESCAPE SO MUCH GOOD ADVICE."
- Sir Arthur Helps

It's not like we haven't been warned, viewed the storm clouds, known since childhood ball games that "what goes up must come down." But we have developed a sort of cynicism about money. As Mark Twain said:

"HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY-WHEN THERE IS MONEY IN IT."

Or we can outwardly smirk that we don't care about money while flaunting our success with it. As Shaquille O'neal playfully observed:

I'M TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. I JUST WANT TO PLAY THE GAME, DRINK PEPSI, WEAR REEBOK.

We began to view money as a way to "opt out" of society, rather than as simply one integral part of life that is needed to "opt in" Rita Rudner personifies this when she said:

"SOME DAY I WANT TO BE RICH. SOME PEOPLE GET SO RICH THEY LOSE ALL RESPECT FOR HUMANITY. THAT'S HOW RICH I WANT TO BE."

And it is easy enough to allow this cynicism to pick up the accompanying emotional baggage of selfishness. What we so desperately want for ourselves, we eschew for others:

"IT IS IN THE CHARACTER OF VERY FEW MEN TO HONOR WITHOUT ENVY A FRIEND WHO HAS PROSPERED."
- Aeschylus

Or the way we define an Acquaintance:

"A PERSON WHOM WE KNOW WELL ENOUGH TO BORROW FROM, BUT NOT WELL ENOUGH TO LEND TO."
- Ambrose Bierce