Quote Of The Day By Albert Einstein: 'Money Only Appeals To Selfishness And Always Tempts Its Owners Irresistibly To...'

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Most people know Albert Einstein. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist and mathematician is so famous that his name is synonymous with intelligence decades after his death. Einstein was born in 1879, in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. When he was young, he struggled in school, but he took to playing the violin and classical music. After getting a tutor, he became interested in the concept of light. It inspired him to write his first big essay, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields," when he was only a teenager. When it came time for him to be drafted into the military, he dodged the draft and dropped out of school with a doctor's note. Despite this, Einstein earned impressive test scores in physics and math, which got him into the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Einstein then worked in a patent office as a clerk. During this time, he wrote many important papers and made discoveries, including, of course, E=MC² and the theory of relativity. He went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. He later became an important figure in the fight to stop the use of atomic weapons during World War II. Later, he focused his studies on black holes, time travel, and how life came to be. And that's how Einstein's thoughts on wealth and greed became today's quote of the day.

"Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it." Albert Einstein wrote this line in his book "The World As I See It," which was first published in 1934. In his eyes, more wealth will always erode ethics.

Albert Einstein believed that money makes people more selfish. Rather than feeling satisfied, more money only makes people want even more. Increasing wealth lures people further from ethics and deeper into greed. Alongside this quote in "The World As I See It," Einstein wrote, "I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause." To him, surplus money is bound to corrupt even those with a strong moral compass. He added, "Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?" Of course we can't imagine that. Despite being indoctrinated by our capitalist society, it's clear to most of us that no moral paragon would hoard wealth. 

These days, more and more people are awakening to the realities of wealth inequality. And, there's good reason for that. As of September 2026, the bottom 50% of households in the United States hold only 2.5% of the wealth, per Center for American Progress. The top 1% has over 31%, creating the largest wealth gap in the country since the Federal Reserve began collecting this data in 1989. Greed growing like a monster that feeds on money isn't an issue that's gotten better since Einstein's day; it's gotten significantly more detrimental to our society's health. The more we consider Einstein's thoughts on the matter, the closer we may get to a solution.

• "The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds."
• "A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness."
• "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."
• "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
• "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value"