Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Thorstein Veblen

Quote by Thorstein Veblen

Work

The Theory of the Leisure Class

This seminal book explores the role of leisure in the development of social classes and the economic implications of leisure time in contemporary life. more

Author

Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Veblen

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. more

You May Also Like

“The American farmer, whose holdings were not so extensive as those of the grandee nor so tiny as those of the peasant, whose psychology was Protestant and bourgeois, and whose politics were petty-capitalist rather than traditionalist, had no reason to share the social outlook of the rural classes of Europe. In Europe land was limited and dear, while labor was abundant and relatively cheap; in America the ratio between land and labor was inverted.”

ReasonAmericaSocialClassPsychologyShareLandEuropeLaborDearTinyNo ReasonFarmersCapitalistOutlookPettyPeasantsBourgeoisProtestantsRatiosInverted
Author:Richard Hofstadter
Create image

“Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in a mordant protest written soon after the [1952] election, found the intellectual "in a situation he has not known for a generation." After twenty years of Democratic rule, during which the intellectual had been in the main understood and respected, business had come back into power, bringing with it "the vulgarization which has been the almost invariable consequence of business supremacy.”

YearsHas BeensFoundSituationKnownWrittenGenerationsIntellectualUnderstoodConsequenceTwentiesElectionDemocraticProtestSupremacyArthur
Author:Richard Hofstadter
Create image

“Anti-intellectualism ... has been present in some form and degree in most societies; in one it takes the form of the administering of hemlock, in another of town-and-gown riots, in another of censorship and regimentation, in still another of Congressional investigations.”

Has BeensStillsFormDegreesTownsCensorshipInvestigationRiotGownsIntellectualismHemlockRegimentation
Book:Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Create image

“As somebody who, in my second marriage, insisted on a prenuptial agreement, I can also testify that sometimes it is an act of love to chart the exit strategy before you enter the union, in order to make sure that not only you, but your partner as well, knows that there will be no World War III should hearts and minds, for any sad reason, change.”

KnowsWorldShouldMindWellsHeartI CanWarSometimesReasonOrderStrategyUnionsPartnersWar Of The WorldsAgreementHeart And MindExitActs Of LoveSecond Marriage
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Create image

“It is the historic glory of the intellectual class of the West in modern times that, of all the classes which could be called in any sense privileged, it has shown the largest and most consistent concern for the well-being of the classes which lie below it in the social scale.”

WellsLyingSocialClassModernIntellectualGloryConcernWestScalesWell BeingConsistentPrivilegedHistoricModern Times
Book:Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Create image

“The intellectual ... may live for ideas, as I have said, but something must prevent him from living for one idea, from becoming obsessive or grotesque. Although there have been zealots whom we may still regard as intellectuals, zealotry is a defect of the breed and not of the essence.”

MayHas BeensSaidStillsIdeasBecomingIntellectualEssenceRegardDefectsObsessiveGrotesqueZealotZealotry
Book:Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Create image