The Duty to Get Rich — Acres of Diamonds

Conwell attacks the idea that piety requires poverty, pointing out that churches routinely denounce money from the pulpit while depending entirely on it to print Bibles, build buildings, and pay missionaries and preachers. He argues that getting rich honestly is a Christian duty, since money in good hands accomplishes real good, and that sympathy for the poor should be reserved for those who truly cannot help themselves, not treated as a blanket virtue.

A theological student marches into Conwell's office to correct him, insisting the Bible says money is the root of all evil. Conwell hands him the Bible and asks him to read the verse aloud properly; the student discovers it actually says the love of money, not money itself, is the root of evil. Conwell distinguishes idolizing money, hoarding it, refusing to invest it for good, from simply possessing it, which carries no inherent sin.

The chapter closes on a direct challenge: a man complains he kept a store in Philadelphia for twenty years and never made more than a thousand dollars total. Conwell tells him bluntly that his meager profit proves he served his neighbors poorly, since a person's earnings measure the value they deliver to others. He insists that surveying just four blocks around any store would reveal unmet needs and real profit waiting to be claimed.