Defined Quote by Lewis H. Lapham

“Under the rules of a society that cannot distinguish between profit and profiteering, between money defined as necessity and money defined as luxury, murder is occasionally obligatory and always permissible.”

Lewis H. Lapham

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More by Lewis H. Lapham

The figure of the enthusiast who has just discovered jogging or a new way to fix tofu can be said to stand or, more…

Lewis H. Lapham

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A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of…

Lewis H. Lapham

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The future turns out to be something that you make instead of find. It isn't waiting for your arrival, either with an arrest warrant…

Lewis H. Lapham

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The genius of capitalism consists precisely in its lack of morality. Unless he is rich enough to hire his own choir, a capitalist is…

Lewis H. Lapham

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If you wear a suit, you can talk to anybody.

Lewis H. Lapham

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We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man…

Lewis H. Lapham

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[For American consumer society], the country's reserves of ignorance constitute a natural resource as precious as the Mississippi River or the long-lost herds of…

Lewis H. Lapham

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A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough…

Lewis H. Lapham

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His administration apparently means to define itself as a television program instead of a government...I don't know if it can please both its sponsors…

Lewis H. Lapham

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In the garden of tabloid delight, there is always a clean towel and another song.

Lewis H. Lapham

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To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of…

Lewis H. Lapham

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About the presence of death and dying I don't remember the society in the 1950s being so skittish as it has since become. People…

Lewis H. Lapham

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Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and…

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