23 quotes
It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
The Affluent Society (1958)
The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Ideas do not respect national frontiers, and this is especially so where language and other traditions are in common.
The Affluent Society (1958)
The massive reduction in risk that is inherent in the development of the modern corporation has been far from fully appreciated.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Very important functions can be performed very wastefully and often are.
The Affluent Society (1958)
More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.
The Affluent Society (1958)
The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage.
The Affluent Society (1958)
One man's consumption becomes his neighbor's wish.
The Affluent Society (1958)
It is in the long run that the corporation lives.
The Affluent Society (1958)
In the affluent society, no sharp distinction can be made between luxuries and necessaries.
The Affluent Society (1958)
We do not manufacture wants for goods we do not produce.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Marx profoundly affected those who did not accept his system. His influence extended to those who least supposed they were subject to it.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Private enterprise did not get us atomic energy.
The Affluent Society (1958)
In recent times no problem has been more puzzling to thoughtful people than why, in a troubled world, we make such poor use of our affluence.
The Affluent Society (1958)
A businessman who reads Business Week is lost to fame. One who reads Proust is marked for greatness.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance with which they cannot contend.
The Affluent Society (1958)
Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego. It is well no doubt, to reflect on how much one owes to others.
The Affluent Society (1958)
In a community wherepublic services have failed to keep abreast of private consumption things are very different. Here, in an atmosphere of private opulence and public squalor, the private goods have full sway.
The Affluent Society (1958)