Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lewis H. Lapham
Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleStatesWorldKnowsDemocracySelfChildrenGovernmentMightMoneyRichWayWellsMenStoriesUnitedUnited StatesWarArt

Famous Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

“Money is like fire, an element as little troubled by moralizing as earth, air and water. Men can employ it as a tool or they can dance around it as if it were the incarnation of a god. Money votes socialist or monarchist, finds a profit in pornography or translations from the Bible, commissions Rembrandt and underwrites the technology of Auschwitz. It acquires its meaning from the uses to which it is put.”

IfsMenLittlesUseEarthWaterMoneyTechnologyFireAirElementsToolsVoteProfitAcquireSocialistPornographyTranslationsIncarnationAuschwitzAir And WaterMoralizing
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
Create image

“We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man may have committed or how cynically he may have debased his talent or his friends, variations on the answer Yes, but I did it for the money, satisfy all but the most tiresome objections.”

MenMayMatterMightAnswersMoneyTalentCrimeConversationConscienceNo Matter WhatCommittedNewspapersDecayVariationObjectionsTiresome
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
Create image

“A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong.”

MenWorldFeelsKindEnoughCertainCausesPresidentViewsMoneyMoralRichConclusionComicMaking MoneySooner Or LaterSymptomsObligedTremblingRich ManDandyism
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
Create image

“Seeing is believing, and if an American success is to count for anything in the world it must be clothed in the raiment of property. As often as not it isn't the money itself that means anything; it is the use of money as the currency of the soul.”

IfsWorldBelieveMeanSoulUseMoneySeeingPropertyCurrencySeeing Is BelievingAmerican Success
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
Create image