'Did you inherit most of your fortune,' I asked Cephalus, 'or did you make it yourself?'
'Did I make my fortune, Socrates?' he said. 'As a business man I rank somewhere between my grandfather and my father. For my grandfather, after whom I am named, inherited about as much as I now have and multiplied it several times over, while my father Lysanias reduced it to less than what it is now: for myself, I shall be pleased enough if I leave these boys of mine a little more than I inherited.'
“The reason why I asked,' I said, 'was that you did not seem to me over-fond of money. And this is the way in general with those who have not made it themselves, while those who have are twice as fond of it as anyone else. For just as poets are fond of their own poems, and fathers of their own children, so money-makers become devoted to money, not only because, like other people, they find it useful, but because it's their own creation. So they are tiresome company, as they have a good word for nothing but money.
I find it interesting that in ancient Greece, the greatest philosopher, Socrates, condemns those who make their own fortunes as tiresome. It is such a different attitude than the American ethos, which almost praises above all else the self-made businessman
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The above is part of my annotation series of Plato's Republic on CommonPlace. See the full passage by Plato on Commonplace here. If you are interested helping annotate The Republic/philosophy texts, please post them to to the CommonPlace Philosophy book club.