Celia: Oh, God and his good angels! Whither, whither Is shame fled human breasts? That with such ease, Men dare put off your honours and their own? Is that, which ever was a cause of life, Now placed beneath the basest circumstance? And modesty an exile made, for money?

These lines are spoken in Act III, scene vii, just before Volpone's attempted seduction and then attempted rape of Celia. Celia's husband has effectively prostituted to Volpone, so that he might inherit Volpone's forunte. Celia here effectively Jonson's mouthpiece, citing what might be considered the thesis of the play. Namely, that even love and sex, the most intimate acts in human life, that create life, are now held to be less valuable than money; and that this inverted value-system has made men dishonorable and shameless in their pursuit of money.