28 quotes
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men's eyes.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The chief use of servants is the evidence they afford of the master's ability to pay.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
All ritual has a notable tendency to reduce itself to a rehearsal of formulas.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The possession of wealth confers honor; it is an invidious distinction.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
In the priestly life of all anthropomorphic cults the marks of a vicarious consumption of time are visible.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
While the proximate ground of discrimination may be of another kind, still the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The domestic life of most classes is relatively shabby, as compared with the éclat of that overt portion of their life that is carried on before the eyes of observers.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
It frequently happens that an element of the standard of living which set out with being primarily wasteful, ends with becoming, in the apprehension of the consumer, a necessary of life.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The superior gratification derived from the use and contemplation of costly and supposedly beautiful products is, commonly, in great measure a gratification of our sense of costliness masquerading under the name of beauty.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous penalty of the law.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
It is much more difficult to recede from a scale of expenditure once adopted than it is to extend the accustomed scale in response to an accession of wealth.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The need of conspicuous waste... stands ready to absorb any increase in the community's industrial efficiency or output of goods.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The institution of a leisure class has emerged gradually during the transition from primitive savagery to barbarism; or more precisely, during the transition from a peaceable to a consistently warlike habit of life.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
In order to stand well in the eyes of the community, it is necessary to come up to a certain, somewhat indefinite, conventional standard of wealth.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
From the ownership of women the concept of ownership extends itself to include the products of their industry, and so there arises the ownership of things as well as of persons.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The walking stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer's hands are employed otherwise than in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
In modern civilized communities... the members of each stratum accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
A standard of living is of the nature of habit. ...it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that has once become habitual.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The addiction to sports ... marks an arrested development of the man's moral nature.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)