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Thorstein Veblen Quotes

Economist

Thorstein Veblen was an American economist known for his sociological perspective on economics and his critical analysis of economic theories. His work, 'The Theory of the Leisure Class,' had a profound impact on later economics and sociology.

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All Leisure Conspicuous Consumption Class Mean Aesthetic Goods Habit Waste Wealth Beautiful Business Community Consumption Effort Eye Individual Self Standards Use Apprehension

Famous Thorstein Veblen Quotes

“...the traits that distinguish the swaggering delinquent and the punctilious gentleman of leisure from the common crowd are, in some measure, marks of an arrested spiritual development. They mark an immature phase, as compared with the stage of development attained by the average adults in the modern industrial community.”

Class Leisure Delinquency Spiritual Formation Arrested Development Community Life Archaic Customs

Book:Conspicuous Consumption

Source: Conspicuous Consumption

“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.”

Class Habit Institutions Transition Leisure Primitive Consistently Barbarism Savagery

Book:THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS: An Economic Study of American Institutions and a Social Critique of Conspicuous Consumption: Development of Institutions That Shape Society and Influence the Livelihood of Citizens: Based on Sociological & Economical Theories of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer

Source: THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS: An Economic Study of American Institutions and a Social Critique of Conspicuous Consumption: Development of Institutions That Shape Society and Influence the Livelihood of Citizens: Based on Sociological & Economical Theories of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer

“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.”

Eye Class Portions Observers Shabby Domestic Life

Book:The Theory of the Leisure Class

Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class

“The office of the leisure class in social evolution is to retard the movement and to conserve what is obsolescent. This proposition is by no means novel; it has long been one of the commonplaces of popular opinion.”

Mean Long Social Opinion Class Novel Movement Evolution Office Leisure Propositions Commonplace Retard Popular Opinion

Book:The Theory of the Leisure Class

Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class

“The taste of the more recent accessions to the leisure class proper and of the middle and lower classes still requires a pecuniary beauty to supplement the aesthetic beauty, even in those objects which are primarily admired for the beauty that belongs to them as natural growths.”

Stills Growth Natural Class Middle Objects Taste Aesthetic Leisure Supplements Lower Class Aesthetic Beauty

Book:The Theory of the Leisure Class

Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class