A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.

—Lewis H. Lapham

politics humor dandyism morality wealth

About Lewis H. Lapham

Portrait of Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis Henry Lapham II (; January 8, 1935 – July 23, 2024) was an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He was the founder of Lapham's Quarterly, a publication about history and literature, and wrote...

More quotations from Lewis H. Lapham

The survival of American democracy depends less on the size of its armies than on the capacity of its individual citizens to rely . . . on the strength of their own thought.

—Lewis H. Lapham

Without meaning to belittle the wonders of science, I do not think they can absolve mankind of suffering, desire, madness, and death.

—Lewis H. Lapham

science death suffering desire madness

Money is like fire, an element as little troubled by moralizing as earth, air, and water. Men can employ it as a tool, or they can dance around it as if it were the incarnation of a god. Money votes socialist or monarchist, finds a profit in pornography or translations from the Bible, commissions Rembrandt and underwrites the technology of Auschwitz. It acquires its meaning from the uses to which it is put.

—Lewis H. Lapham

technology morality money fire Bible socialism monarchy pornography

More quotations tagged with “wealth”

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.

—Charles Kuralt

love privilege family wealth

What greater folly can be imagined than to call gems, silver, and gold “noble” and earth and dirt “base”? For do not these persons consider that, if there were as great a scarcity of earth as there is of jewels and precious metals, there would be no king who would not gladly give a heap of diamonds and rubies and many ingots of gold to purchase only so much earth as would suffice to plant a jessamine in a little pot or to set a tangerine in it, that he might see it sprout, grow up, and bring forth such goodly leaves, fragrant flowers, and delicate fruit?

—Galileo Galilei

bounty wealth dirty fruit

During the contest for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, John F. Kennedy visited a mine in West Virginia. “Is it true you’re the son of one of our wealthiest men?” asked one of the miners there. Kennedy admitted that this was true. “Is it true that you’ve never wanted for anything and had everything you wanted?” “I guess so,” Kennedy replied. “Is it true you’ve never done a day’s work with your hands all your life?” Kennedy nodded. “Well, let me tell you this,” said the miner. “You haven’t missed a thing.”

—Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes

power work wealth

The rich are never threatened by the poor — they do not notice them.

—Marie de France

poverty wealth class

When you go to work, if your name is on the building, you’re rich. If your name is on your desk, you’re middle-class. If your name is on your shirt, you’re poor.

poverty economics work wealth class