"Howard Hughes was able to afford the luxury of madness, like a man who not only thinks he is Napoleon but hires an army to prove it"

The quote by Ted Morgan is a striking commentary on the lavish way of life of Howard Hughes and acts as a metaphor that shows the extremities of wealth and eccentricity. It compares Hughes's viewed madness and extravagant actions to that of a male with deceptions of magnificence, particularly, a man who thinks he is Napoleon and goes as far as to hire an army to verify his misconceptions.

Howard Hughes was a multimillionaire known for his ventures in air travel, film, and business. His wealth afforded him the advantage to delight in eccentric behaviors and take risks that ordinary people could not. Simply as the guy who believes himself to be Napoleon would need tremendous resources to put together an army purely for the function of proving his misconception, Hughes could likewise act upon his non-traditional impulses without issue for the effects that would typically prevent others.

The mention of Napoleon is especially notable. Napoleon Bonaparte is historically synonymous with ambition and conquest, frequently romanticized for his military expertise and management despite an ultimate downfall. This parallel exaggerates Hughes's eccentricities, recommending that his financial power allowed him to pursue his ambitions and whims to great lengths, as though assembling an "army" of efforts-- be they films, aircraft, or service acquisitions-- to satisfy his larger-than-life concepts.

In essence, Morgan's quote underscores the crossway of wealth, power, and insanity. It indicates a criticism of how severe abundance can distort one's perception of truth and motivates uncontrolled habits. What may appear irrational or unwise to the average person ends up being plausible when backed by enormous resources. As a result, Hughes's life embodies an extravagance in 'high-end of madness,' reflecting the more comprehensive societal observation that huge wealth can blur the line in between vision and delusion, rendering the useful barriers irrelevant.