All C. Wright Mills Quotes
- Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or… Aim
- Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Inspirational
- The life-fate of the modern individual depends not only upon the family into which he was born or which he enters by marriage, but increasingly… Alert
- America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the… America
- Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be… Access
- Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic… American
- The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America,… Access
- For we cannot adequately understand 'man' as an isolated biological creature, as a bundle of reflexes or a set of instincts, as an 'intelligible field'… Actor
- What we experience in various and specific milieux, I have noted, is often caused by structural changes. Accordingly, to understand the changes of many personal… Able
- What I am asserting is that in this particular epoch a conjunction of historical circumstances has led to the rise of an elite of power;… Asserting
- The principal cause of war is war itself. Cause
- Nobody talks more of free enterprise and competition and of the best man winning than the man who inherited his father's store or farm. Best
- In our time, what is at issue is the very nature of man, the image we have of his limits and possibilities as a man.… Curiosity
- What ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions… Aware
- To really belong, we have got, first, to get it clear with ourselves that we do not belong and do not want to belong to… Belong
- If you do not specify and confront real issues, what you say will surely obscure them. If you do not embody controversy, what you say… Acceptance
- To say that you can 'have experience,' means, for one thing, that your past plays into and affects your present, and that it defines your… Affects
- According to your belief [Christian clergy], my kind of man — secular, prideful, agnostic and all the rest of it — is among the damned.… According
- Seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history, ordinary people do not usually know… Aware
- People with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy… Advantage
- What one side considers a defense the other considers a threat. In the vortex of the struggle, each is trapped by his own fearful outlook… Both
- Each day men sell little pieces if themselves in order to try to buy then back each night and weekend. Buy
- Every revolution has its counterrevolution - that is a sign the revolution is for real Counterrevolution
- A society that is in its higher circles and middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with… Absolute
- The more we understand what is happening in the world, the more frustrated we often become, for our knowledge leads to feelings of powerlessness. We… Actor