Money without brains is always dangerous.

Hill’s line warns that wealth, when not guided by judgment, education, or ethical restraint (“brains”), tends to magnify a person’s worst impulses and errors. Money increases one’s power to act—buying influence, taking larger risks, or indulging appetites—so a lack of practical intelligence can turn resources into a hazard for the owner and others. In Hill’s broader self-help worldview, “brains” also implies disciplined thinking: planning, learning from experience, and surrounding oneself with capable advisers. The aphorism thus frames prosperity as a responsibility: financial success should be paired with competence and character, or it becomes destabilizing rather than liberating.