Comment by throw0101d

> I think the seductive appeal of Gordon Gekko is meant to illustrate something fundamental about the human condition. We are all susceptible to temptation, whether it involves pleasure, money, status, or power.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago:

> The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.

* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/450864-the-line-separating-...

Thomas Aquinas, echoing earlier philosophers, wrote that money, power, pleasure, and fame/glory/honour were the main idols in this life:

* https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2002.htm

They're not bad in themselves, but they should not be your 'highest good'.