Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory. — Salvador Dalí

Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory.

Author: Salvador Dalí

Insight: Dalí wasn't being flippant or greedy when he said this—he was pointing at something real about how we relate to objects and ideas. We treat money as purely practical, a tool for transactions, but that's actually the strange view. Money is already mystical to us. We project meaning onto it constantly: security, status, freedom, failure, worth. A number in a bank account becomes a story about who we are. The non-obvious part is that pretending money is just neutral—just math—doesn't make us more rational. It just means we're unconscious about the mythology we're already living in. Dalí's honesty about loving money like a religious experience might actually be more honest than the person who claims to be purely practical about their finances. At least he's admitting the spell. This matters now because we're drowning in performance around money. We're supposed to be dispassionate minimalists or shrewd investors or enlightened people who "don't care about material things," but we're all actually walking around charged with feelings about money—anxiety, shame, ambition, relief. Naming that openly, the way Dalí does, might be the first step to actually understanding what we're chasing and why.