Thorstein Veblen

"Industrial civilization rests upon technical knowledge that the leisure class disdains."

"The penalty for being different is isolation from the community of one's peers."

"Pecuniary competition drives waste and inefficiency throughout the economic system."

"The most important economic activity is not production but the distribution of produced goods."

"Modern warfare is fundamentally an expression of primitive predatory instincts."

"The institution of ownership serves the interests of the powerful at the expense of the many."

"Intellectual independence is almost always purchased at the price of material security."

"The conspicuous consumption of leisure is the most effective display of economic power."

"What passes for morality is often merely the codification of existing power relations."

"The pace of institutional change lags perpetually behind the pace of technological change."

"The business of acquiring wealth frequently corrupts the character of the acquirer."

"Economic competition between nations is a form of sublimated warfare."

"The idle rich are the parasites upon which civilization feeds."

"Cultural values are not absolute truths but expressions of material circumstances."

"The institution of the family serves primarily to transmit property across generations."

"The instinct of workmanship is the fundamental drive of human nature, yet modern industry often frustrates its expression."

"Conspicuous consumption serves no purpose but the display of wealth to others."

"The leisure class perpetuates itself through the invidious distinction of idleness from productive labor."

"Machine production has created a new standard of living that enslaves rather than liberates the worker."

"Emulation of the wealthy classes corrupts the moral sensibilities of those beneath them."

"The businessman's ethics are fundamentally at odds with those of the engineer and craftsman."

"Predatory habits of thought distinguish the businessman from the artisan."

"Advertising is the art of making people want what they do not need."

"The accumulation of goods becomes an end in itself rather than a means to comfort."

"Industrial efficiency has not brought proportional increase in human happiness."

"The trained incapacity of businessmen prevents them from understanding productive value."

"Status anxiety drives much of human economic behavior in modern society."

"The leisure class survives by making idleness respectable through elaborate customs."

"True workmanship cannot coexist with the profit motive in modern industry."

"Learning is often corrupted when converted into a commodity for sale."