Only individuals with an aberrant temperament can in the long run retain their self-esteem in the face of the disesteem of their fellows. — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
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. — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
In aesthetic theory it might be extremely difficult, if not quite impracticable, to draw a line between the canon of classicism, or regard for… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development in man's moral nature. — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
A protective tariff is a typical conspiracy in restraint of trade. — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
It is much more difficult to recede from a scale of expenditure once adopted than it is to extend the accustomed scale in response… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
A standard of living is of the nature of habit. ...it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
It frequently happens that an element of the standard of living which set out with being primarily wasteful, ends with becoming, in the apprehension… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
All business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious use of sabotage. — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
“She lives with man on terms of equality, knows nothing of that relation of status which is the ancient basis of all distinctions of… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous… — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
The dog commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery — Thorstein Veblen Copy Share Image
