Thorstein Veblen

Economist

1857-07-30

Quotes by Thorstein Veblen

• In point of substantial merit the law school belongs in the modern university no more than a school of fencing or dancing.

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• Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

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• The visible imperfections of hand-wrought goods, being honorific, are accounted marks of superiority in point of beauty, or serviceability, or both.

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• Invention is the mother of necessity.

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• English orthography satisfies all the requirements of the canons of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective; its acquisition consumes much time and effort; failure to acquire it is easy of detection.

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• In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men's eyes.

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• The superior gratification derived from the use and contemplation of costly and supposedly beautiful products is, commonly, in great measure a gratification of our sense of costliness masquerading under the name of beauty.

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• So soon as the possession of property becomes the basis of popular esteem, therefore, it becomes also a requisite to that complacency which we call self-respect.

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• Only individuals with an aberrant temperament can in the long run retain their self-esteem in the face of the disesteem of their fellows.

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• Loud dress becomes offensive to people of taste, as evincing an undue desire to reach and impress the untrained sensibilities of the vulgar.

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• In order to stand well in the eyes of the community, it is necessary to come up to a certain, somewhat indefinite, conventional standard of wealth.

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