Lewis H. Lapham

"The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution were as suspicious of efficient government as they were wary of democracy, a "turbulence and a folly" that was associated with the unruly ignorance of an urban mob."

"We need not seek our own best selves, and in the meantime we inoculate ourselves against the viruses of age and idealism, which, as the advertising agencies well know, depress sales and sour the feasts of consumption."

"Money ennobles rich people, and corrupts poor people. Money in sufficient quantity entitles its possessor to the reverence and respect owed to the statue of George Washington. Money is the sacred elephant, always in the room, never to be addressed or seen, but whose will is done on earth as it is in Heaven."

"By the word "liberty" they meant liberty for property, not liberty for persons."

"It isnt money itself that causes the trouble, but the use of money as votive offering and pagan ornament."

"At this late stage in the history of American capitalism Im not sure I know how much testimony still needs to be presented to establish the relation between profit and theft."