"Some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it"

The line skewers the reflex to equate net worth with self-worth. When money becomes the scoreboard of life, people start mistaking the size of their account for the size of their character. That confusion isn’t only personal vanity; it reflects a culture that loudly rewards visible wealth with attention, access, and deference. The result is a subtle indoctrination: accumulate money and you’ve proven your value, lose money and your value diminishes. It’s a seduction that can trap both the rich and those aspiring to be.

Embedded is a critique of the merit story often attached to riches. Some fortunes are earned through skill and grit, but many are inherited, aided by structural advantages, or born of luck and timing. Money, then, is an outcome, sometimes deserved, sometimes arbitrary, not a moral credential. It can buy comfort, security, and influence, but it cannot purchase wisdom, empathy, or integrity. In practice, wealth tends to magnify what is already there: generosity becomes impactful generosity; cruelty becomes far-reaching harm. When people confuse assets with essence, they risk inflating their importance, silencing dissent, and overlooking the mutual dependencies that make any success possible.

The social costs are real. If money is treated as a proxy for worth, public life skews toward plutocracy, where those with means presume superior judgment and claim disproportionate voice. Even benevolence can turn performative, where philanthropy functions as reputation laundering rather than genuine solidarity. A healthier measure of value asks different questions: How do you treat those with nothing to offer you? What do you build that lasts beyond profit? How do you respond when fortune turns?

The aphorism urges humility about the contingency of wealth and a re-centering of human value on character, contribution, relationships, and care. Let money be a tool, not an identity. Let worth be earned in how we live with and for others, not in the digits we can display.