Jeremiah Cornelius's Journal: Abraham Lincoln

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

As ancient commenter Solomon wrote

[smittyoneeach]

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. [blueletterbible.org]

That was not, however, written by the laboring man.

This is why slavery came before money...

[Bob_Who]

After all, who was gonna dig up all of that gold for the rich guys? Besides, who needs capital to build civilizations and pyramids when you have a bunch of slaves? Money is virtual slavery.