“Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value…” Think of Bernie Madoff (2011), or Enron, shady businessmen, or corrupt politicians. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword, so to speak. If you live for ill-gotten treasures, you will fall by your financial mistakes.
But even if you “get away with it,” you can’t take it with you. And because you have cheated other people, you’ll always be looking over your shoulder.
Mike Burns says, “We say that money won’t make us happy, and then we live as if money is the very thing that gives life meaning.” People pursue money to fill a void in themselves, but they only find out after accumulating it that it doesn’t fill the void. It doesn’t satisfy. There’s a yearning in your soul that money can’t touch.
What’s even worse, then, is getting money through illegitimate ways. Not only are you spending your life chasing what won’t satisfy you, but you’re abusing other people and situations to do it. A real stupidity, but SOOOO seductive.