We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man may have committed or how cynically he may have debased his talent or his friends, variations on the answer “Yes, but I did it for the money” satisfy all but the most tiresome objections.
Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935), U.S. essayist, editor. Money and Class in America, ch. 4 (1988).