How to understand "As much money and life as you could want!" in this context?

Question

"...After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all -- the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them." (said by Dumbledore)

As I understand, "As much money and life as you could want!" can be paraphrased as the Stone can do as much money and life as you could want!. "The two things" in the next sentence refers to Life and Money. The last part is saying that Life and Money are the worst for humans, but they have knack of choosing them precisely.

Is my understanding correct? Especially, I'm really not sure if I'm right about "As much money and life as you could want!" in this context.

Answer 1

Your paraphrase was:

The Stone can do as much money and life as you could want!

I would change that a little bit, as the verb do does not work well in that sentence:

The Stone can give you as much money and life as you could want!

In other words, the stone has the power to give you as much money as you could want, and to ensure you live a very long life.

It’s an odd sentence structure, because the speaker is leaving out the first part of the sentence, and making the clause an exclamation.

Another possible paraphrase might be:

Think of it! As much money and as long a life as you want!

Answer 2

The two things certainly refer to money and life.

While the final sentence is not explicit, it implies that money and life are among the worst choices that people make.

The effects of an overwhelming desire for wealth have been well illustrated, never better than in the myth of the golden touch of King Midas.

As to life - while I am not familiar with the book, life in this context is being contrasted with death as the next adventure, possibly in Dumbledore's mind because death is preferable to the burdens of old age. But this is just speculation.