Socialism is a dead horse. Thorstein Veblen More Quotes by Thorstein Veblen More Quotes From Thorstein Veblen These various habits of thought, or habitual expressions of life, are all phases of the single life sequence of the individual; therefore a habit formed in response to a given stimulus will necessarily affect the character of the response made to other stimuli. A modification of human nature at any one point is a modification of human nature as a whole. Thorstein Veblen single-life expression character Loud dress becomes offensive to people of taste, as evincing an undue desire to reach and impress the untrained sensibilities of the vulgar. Thorstein Veblen clothes fashion people 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 motives proper. In an industrial community this propensity for emulation expresses itself in pecuniary emulation; and this, so far as regards the Western civilized communities of the present, is virtually equivalent to saying that it expresses itself in some form of conspicuous waste. Thorstein Veblen waste community self Conservatism is the maintenance of conventions already in force. Thorstein Veblen consistency maintenance tradition The changing styles are the expression of a restless search for something which shall commend itself to our aesthetic sense; but as each innovation is subject to the selective action of the norm of conspicuous waste, the range within which innovation can take place is somewhat restricted. The innovation must not only be more beautiful, or perhaps oftener less offensive, than that which it displaces, but it must also come up to the accepted standard of expensiveness. Thorstein Veblen fashion expression beautiful Inherited aptitudes and traits of temperament count for quite as much as length of habituation in deciding what range of habits will come to dominate any individual's scheme of life. Thorstein Veblen aptitude individual habit The aesthetic serviceability of objects of beauty is not greatly nor universally heightened by possession. Thorstein Veblen aesthetic objects possession 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. Thorstein Veblen acquisition effort law The corset is?a mutilation, undergone for the purpose of lowering the subject's vitalityand rendering her permanentlyand obviously unfit for work. Thorstein Veblen rendering mutilation purpose In the rare cases where it occurs, a failure to increase one's visible consumption when the means for an increase are at hand is felt in popular apprehension to call for explanation, and unworthy motives of miserliness are imputed. Thorstein Veblen increase mean hands Conservatism, being an upper-class characteristic, is decorous; and conversely, innovation, being a lower-class phenomenon, is vulgar. ...Innovation is bad form. Thorstein Veblen characteristics innovation class In aesthetic theory it might be extremely difficult, if not quite impracticable, to draw a line between the canon of classicism, or regard for the archaic, and the canon of beauty. Thorstein Veblen canon lines might The taste of the more recent accessions to the leisure class proper and of the middle and lower classes still requires a pecuniary beauty to supplement the aesthetic beauty, even in those objects which are primarily admired for the beauty that belongs to them as natural growths. Thorstein Veblen aesthetic-beauty growth class 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 class long mean A standard of living is of the nature of habit. ...it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that has once become habitual. Thorstein Veblen scales standards habit The visible imperfections of hand-wrought goods, being honorific, are accounted marks of superiority in point of beauty, or serviceability, or both. Thorstein Veblen errors mistake hands All business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious use of sabotage. Thorstein Veblen analysis business use In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men's eyes. Thorstein Veblen eye beautiful life The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before. Thorstein Veblen
