Kenneth J. Barnes > Quotes

“Smith argues forcefully that excessive admiration for the rich and powerful and disdain for the poor are, in fact, corruptions of sound moral reasoning and in direct opposition to wisdom and virtue: This disposition to admire—and almost to worship—the rich and the powerful, and to despise or at least neglect persons of poor and mean condition, is . . . the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. Moralists all down the centuries have complained that wealth and greatness are often given the respect and admiration that only wisdom and virtue should receive, and that poverty and weakness are quite wrongly treated with the contempt that should be reserved for vice and folly. (33)”
― Kenneth J. Barnes, Redeeming Capitalism