Skip to content

The means whereby this work of Nature is brought to its consummate issue are forces of Nature working under her Laws by the method of cause and effect. The principle, or "law," of causation is a metaphysical postulate; in the sense that such a fact as causation is unproved and unprovable. No man has ever observed a case of causation, as is a commonplace with the latterday psychologists.

— Thorstein Veblen The Instinct of Workmanship and the State of the Industrial Arts (1914)

Another quote →

More quotes by Thorstein Veblen

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.

Veblen (1908)

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)

It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.

Absentee Ownership (1923)

All Thorstein Veblen quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thorstein Veblen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.