Plutarch on the Love of Wealth — The Bottomless Jar
Plutarch warned that the love of money is a desire that grows the more it is fed, teaching that contentment, not endless acquisition, is the only cure for the craving that no fortune can satisfy.
In his essay On the Love of Wealth, Plutarch observed that the avaricious resemble a person trying to fill a leaking jar, forever pouring in more yet never reaching fullness, because the craving itself expands faster than any supply. Such people, he noted, possess riches yet live as if poor, denying themselves enjoyment and enslaved to the very wealth they hoard. The remedy is not greater income but a reformed desire, a contentment that knows when enough is enough and turns surplus toward good use. This diagnosis maps onto the modern psychology of materialism, which repeatedly links the relentless pursuit of money and possessions to lower well-being and persistent dissatisfaction. Plutarch thus prescribes contentment as the indispensable companion of wealth, without which abundance becomes a refined form of poverty.
Avarice neither possesses its wealth nor enjoys it; it has the gold but the gold has the man.
Psychological research on materialism consistently links the relentless pursuit of wealth to lower well-being, confirming Plutarch's image of avarice as a bottomless jar cured only by contentment.
Moralia
Written about in
- What the wisdom traditions say about having enough
Plutarch's warning is that this particular appetite grows by being fed. He is describing a mechanism rather than delivering a scolding.
- What the prosperity traditions say about envy and comparison
Plutarch's diagnosis is that the craving widens faster than any supply, so more income cannot close the gap. His avaricious man owns the gold and lives poor — the possession is real, the enjoyment never arrives.