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.

The first duty of an editor is to gauge the sentiment of his reader, and then to tell them what they like to believe.

Abstention from labor is the conventional evidence of wealth and is therefore the conventional mark of social standing.

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

All business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious use of sabotage.

The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods.

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