“If there is no possibility or, to put it in plain terms, if there is no money… What can you do? You can't go to a store, you can't buy anything, either a cannon, or a missile, or a medicine. For this reason the economy is at the basis of everything. In the beginning it was Karl Marx and then Freud and others…”

Variant: Money can't buy life.

In jail, Cross-Country Kline to Dove Linkhorn.
Source: A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
Context: But blow wise to this, buddy, blow wise to this: Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man's jolt. And never you cop another man's plea. I've tried 'em all and I know. They don't work. / Life is hard by the yard, son. But you don't have to do it by the yard. By the inch it's a cinch. And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

Source: Dark Destiny

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969), p 107 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DKG-FXj_HNYC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=%22I+think+you+can+put+any+interpretation+you+want+on+anything,+but+when+someone+suggests+that+Can%E2%80%99t+Buy+Me+Love+is+about+a+prostitute,+I+draw+the+line.+That%E2%80%99s+going+too+far.%22&source=bl&ots=dZZ8CWP3RD&sig=72RA2gERz8OtnW7coK4F0ND9sXc&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22I%20think%20you%20can%20put%20any%20interpretation%20you%20want%20on%20anything%2C%20but%20when%20someone%20suggests%20that%20Can%E2%80%99t%20Buy%20Me%20Love%20is%20about%20a%20prostitute%2C%20I%20draw%20the%20line.%20That%E2%80%99s%20going%20too%20far.%22&f=false

What I've Learned (July 2002)