The Theory of the Leisure Class Quotes

“The ceremonial differentiation of the dietary is best seen in the use of intoxicating beverages and narcotics. If these articles of consumption are costly, they are felt to be noble and honorific. Therefore the base classes, primarily the women, practice an enforced continence with respect to these stimulants, except in countries where they are obtainable at a very low cost. From archaic times down through all the length of the patriarchal regime it has been the office of the women to prepare and administer these luxuries, and it has been the perquisite of the men of gentle birth and breeding to consume them. Drunkenness and the other pathological consequences of the free use of stimulants therefore tend in their turn to become honorific, as being a mark, at the second remove, of the superior status of those who are able to afford the indulgence. Infirmities induced by over-indulgence are among some peoples freely recognised as manly attributes. It has even happened that the name for certain diseased conditions of the body arising from such an origin has passed into everyday speech as a synonym for "noble" or "gentle". It is only at a relatively early stage of culture that the symptoms of expensive vice are conventionally accepted as marks of a superior status, and so tend to become virtues and command the deference of the community; but the reputability that attaches to certain expensive vices long retains so much of its force as to appreciably lesson the disapprobation visited upon the men of the wealthy or noble class for any excessive indulgence. The same invidious distinction adds force to the current disapproval of any indulgence of this kind on the part of women, minors, and inferiors. This invidious traditional distinction has not lost its force even among the more advanced peoples of today. Where the example set by the leisure class retains its imperative force in the regulation of the conventionalities, it is observable that the women still in great measure practise the same traditional continence with regard to stimulants.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

“Athletics have an obvious advantage over the classics for the purpose of leisure-class learning, since success as an athlete presumes, not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money, as well as the possession of certain highly unindustrial archaic traits of character and temperament.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

“The abjectly poor, and all those persons whose energies are entirely absorbed by the struggle for daily sustenance, are conservative because they cannot afford the effort of taking thought for the day after tomorrow; just as the highly prosperous are conservative because they have small occasion to be discontented with the situation as it stands today.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

“As a matter of selective necessity, man is an agent. He is, in his own apprehension, a centre of unfolding impulsive activity—“teleological” activity. He is an agent seeking in every act the accomplishment of some concrete, objective, impersonal end. By force of his being such an agent he is possessed of a taste for effective work, and a distaste for futile effort.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class/The Theory of Business Enterprise

“...it is also true that the classics have scarcely lost in absolute value as a voucher of scholastic respectability, since for this purpose it is only necessary that the scholar should be able to put in evidence some learning which is conventionally recognized as evidence of wasted time; and the classics lend themselves with great facility to this use.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

“The classics, and their position of prerogative in the scheme of education to which the higher seminaries of learning cling with such a fond predilection, serve to shape the intellectual attitude and lower the economic efficiency of the new learned generation. They do this not only by holding up an archaic ideal of manhood, but also by the discrimination which they inculcate with respect to the reputable and the disreputable in knowledge. This result is accomplished in two ways: (1) by inspiring an habitual aversion to what is merely useful, as contrasted with what is merely honorific in learning, and so shaping the tastes of the novice that he comes in good faith to find gratification of his tastes solely, or almost solely, in such exercise of the intellect as normally results in no industrial or social gain; and (2) by consuming the learner's time and effort in acquiring knowledge which is of no use, except in so far as this learning has by convention become incorporated into the sum of learning required of the scholar, and has thereby affected the terminology and diction employed in the useful branches of knowledge.”
― Thorstein Veblen, The Theory Of The Leisure Class

“The upper classes are by custom exempt or excluded from industrial occupations, and are reserved for certain employments to which a degree of honour attaches.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class

“She lives with man on terms of equality, knows nothing of that relation of status which is the ancient basis of all distinctions of worth, honor, and repute, and she does not lend herself with facility to an invidious comparison between her owner and his neighbors.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class

“La presunción de que normalmente no puede haber erudición sólida cuando se carece de conocimientos en clásicos y humanidades conduce a un conspicuo desperdicio de tiempo y esfuerzo por parte del cuerpo estudiantil en la adquisición de tales conocimientos.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Los clásicos”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Las ciencias han irrumpido en el ámbito académico desde fuera”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“La ciencia”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Los hábitos de pensamiento que caracterizan la vida de esta clase están arraigados en la relación personal de dominio y en conceptos derivados e invidiosos de honor”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“La adopción de la toga y el birrete es uno de los rasgos atávicos más sorprendentes de la vida universitaria moderna”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“La clase ociosa comprende un número desproporcionadamente grande de creyentes en diversas formas de ciencias ocultas. Para aquellos cuyos hábitos de pensamiento no están influenciados por el contacto con la industria moderna”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Es mimada por su marido”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Para el hombre moderno”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Como regla general”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Las clases indigentes no solo carecen del mínimo de ocio necesario para asimilar las generalizaciones más recientes de la ciencia que este punto de vista implica”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“De todas las cosas despreciables”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Para cumplir con los requisitos de la máxima eficiencia económica en las condiciones modernas”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Desde la perspectiva de la teoría económica”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“El acto de adoración está diseñado para apelar a un sentido de estatus atribuido al poder insondable al que se acude. Las fórmulas de adoración más comunes todavía implican una comparación envidiosa. La devoción leal a una divinidad antropomórfica con una naturaleza humana arcaica implica las mismas inclinaciones arcaicas en el devoto.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Una alteración en la naturaleza humana en un punto determinado implica una alteración en la naturaleza humana en su totalidad.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“En su forma más simple”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“La creencia en la suerte es un sentido de necesidad fortuita en la secuencia de los fenómenos.”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“El hombre astuto”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“Los patrones de pensamiento de una persona conforman un sistema complejo”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“En las comunidades más civilizadas”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa

“la ocupación más destacada de la clase alta es el gobierno”
― Thorstein Veblen, Teoría de la clase ociosa