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Quote by Lewis H. Lapham

“Since the eighteenth century the immense expansion of the worlds wealth has come about as a result of a correspondingly immense expansion of credit, which in turn has demanded increasingly stupendous suspensions of disbelief.”

Quote by Lewis H. Lapham

Author

Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis H. Lapham is an American writer born on January 8, 1935. He is known for his distinctive literary style and profound insights into American society and politics. more

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“The playing field is more sacred than the stock exchange, more blessed than Capital Hill or the vaults of Fort Knox. The diamond and the gridiron -- and, to a lesser degree, the court, the rink, the track, and the ring -- embody the American dream of Eden.”

Dream Fields Degrees Blessed Sacred Court Track Rings Hills Diamond American Dream Eden Playing Fields Forts Vaults Stock Exchange Gridiron

Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion

Source: Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion

“The pose of innocence is as mandatory as the ability to eat banquet food and endure the scourging of the press.”

Ability Presses Endure Innocence Banquets

Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion

Source: Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion

“The substitution of meaning accounts for the grasping of misers as well as the extravagance of spendthrifts. Karl Marx well understood this peculiar transformation of flesh into coin.”

Wells Understood Accounts Transformation Flesh Peculiar Coins Grasping Extravagance Misers Substitution Spendthrift

Author:Lewis H. Lapham

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.”

“As a child growing up in the precincts of wealth, and later as a college student, newspaper reporter and resident of New York's Upper East Side, I got used to listening to the talk of financial killings and sexual misalliance that animates the conversation of the rich and the familiars of the rich.”

Source: Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion

“The world goes on as before, and it turns out that nobody else seems to to notice the unbearable lightness of being.”

World Seems Turns Goes On Unbearable Lightness Unbearable Lightness Of Being Unbearable Lightness

Author:Lewis H. Lapham

“Given lesser opportunities, Kissinger would have done very well as a talk show host. Fortunately for him, although not so fortunately for the United States, he found his patron in Nelson Rockefeller instead of William Paley.”

Wells States Done Shows Found Opportunity Given United United States Host Nelson Talk Shows Patron Kissinger

Author:Lewis H. Lapham

“What kind of people do we wish to become, and how do we know an American when we see one? Is it possible to pursue a common purpose without a common history or a standard text?”

People Knows Kind Purpose Wish Common Standards Pursue Common Purpose

Book:Waiting for the Barbarians

Source: Waiting for the Barbarians

“The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution were as suspicious of efficient government as they were wary of democracy, a "turbulence and a folly" that was associated with the unruly ignorance of an urban mob.”

Government Democracy Ignorance Constitution Gentleman Folly Efficient Urban Suspicious Turbulence Unruly

Book:Waiting for the Barbarians

Source: Waiting for the Barbarians

“Power broken into a thousand pieces can be hidden and disowned. If no individual or institution possesses the authority to act without of everybody else in the room, then nobody is at fault if anything goes wrong.”

Ifs Individual Rooms Pieces Broken Thousand Authority Institutions Faults Anything Goes

Book:Waiting for the Barbarians

Source: Waiting for the Barbarians