Anyone who thinks consumption can expand forever on a finite planet is either insane or an economist.

An entirely new system of thought is needed, a system based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods. . . .

It is amazing how much theory we can do without when work actually begins.

Man's needs are infinite, and infinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in the material.

Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's enduring powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.

An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth - in short, materialism - does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.

Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees.