William Dean Howells

I don't see why, when it comes to falling in love, a man shouldn't fall in love with a rich girl as easily as a poor one.

From his 1885 novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham.  (I don't think my mother ever read that book, but she used to say the same thing.)  Howells was a fine novelist and a respected literary critic who was the editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1871 to 1881.  He and Mark Twain were close friends for many years.

William Dean Howells