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Of all God’s creatures, Man alone is poor.
~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~ (1795 – 1881)

This is a great thoughtful quote. Of all the creatures that we know of, humans have more material possessions per capita than any other species. Yet most of the time most of us feel we are poor or very poor. Material possessions or the lack thereof is not the only thing that makes us feel poor, we feel poor in more than one way. That’s why many of those who have unfathomable material possessions, also feel they are poor.

I think the reason for this is our insatiable, uncontrolled greed. We are so engrossed in wanting more and more material possessions that we tend to forget what we already possess. Greed to an extent is not necessarily a bad thing but uncontrolled, insatiable greed is definitely a curse. You only have to look at how many wealthy people including CEOs, law makers etc. end up in jail usually on charges such as stealing from their company, defrauding the public or shareholders and indulging in bribery etc. Obviously, it was their greed and not the lack of material possessions that drove them to indulge in such unlawful activity. We only learn about a few of these wealthy (or should I say poor?) people who have been caught; there have to be many others who have not been caught and probably will never be caught. How poor these people must be in spite of being rich!

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