My plans have always exceeded my capacities and energies

Prestige is the shadow of money and power.

The very shaping of history now outpaces the ability of men to orient themselves in accordance with cherished values.

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 celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major institutions.

Whatever sociology may be, it is the result of constantly asking the question, what is the meaning of this?

Much work is merely a way to make money; much leisure is merely a way to spend it.

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 milieux we are required to look beyond them. And the number and variety of such structural changes increase as the institutions within which we live become more embracing and more intricately connected with one another. To be aware of the idea of social structure and to use it with sensibility is to be capable of tracing such linkages among a great variety of milieux. To be able to do that is to possess the sociological imagination