The Way We Live Now (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #76]

by Anthony Trollope

‘Ah — you mean that he is bold in breaking those precepts of yours about coveting worldly wealth. All men and women break that commandment, but they do so in a stealthy fashion, half drawing back the grasping hand, praying to be delivered from temptation while they filch only a little, pretending to despise the only thing that is dear to them in the world.