Greed is not something to admit to in polite society but acquisitiveness still motivates an awful lot of people.

在上流社会，贪婪是不能承认的，但贪婪仍然是很多人的动力。

The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry .

如果占有欲总是强于竞争欲的话，世界将是一个比现在更快乐的地方。

But other desires kept them active: four in particular, which we can label acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity and love of power.

但是其他的欲望仍然促使他们十分活跃，尤其是四种欲望，我们称之为占有欲、竟争欲、虚荣心和权力欲。

But acquisitiveness, although it is the mainspring of the capitalist system, is by no means the most powerful of the motives that survive the conquest of hunger.

虽然占有欲是资本主义制度的主要动力，但它决不是征服了饥饿以后最强大动机。

But whatever the psychoanalysis of acquisitiveness, no one can deny that it is one of the great motives especially among the more powerful , for, as I said before, it is one of the infinite motives.

但不论对占有欲作什么样的精神分析，没人能够否认这是巨大的动机之一。