List of Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

Among All The Emotions, The Rich Have The Least Talent For Love. It Is Possible To Love One's Dog, Dress Or Duck-shooting Hat, But A Human Being Presents A More Difficult Problem. The Rich Might Wish To Experience Feelings Of Affection, But It Is Almost Impossible To Chip Away The Enamel Of Their Narcissism. They Take Up All The Space In All The Mirrors In The House. Their Children, Who Represent The Most Present And Therefore The Most Annoying Claim On Their Attention, Usually Receive The Brunt Of Their Irritation.

As Many As Six Out Of Ten American Adults Have Never Read A Book Of Any Kind, And The Bulletins From The Nation’s Educational Frontiers Read Like The Casualty Reports From A Lost War.

About The Presence Of Death And Dying I Don't Remember The Society In The 1950s Being So Skittish As It Has Since Become. People Still Died At Home, Among Relatives And Friends, Often In The Care Of A Family Physician. Death Was Still To Be Seen Sitting In The Parlor, Hanging In A Butcher Shop, Sometimes Lying In The Street.

It Is The Fear Of Death - 24/7 In Every Shade Of Hospital White And Doomsday Black--that Sells The Pharmaceutical, Political, Financial, Film, And Food Product Promising To Make Good The Wish To Live Forever.

Let The Corporations Do As They Please -- Pillage The Environment, Falsify Their Advertising, Rig The Securities Markets -- And It Is None Of The Federal Government's Business To Interfere With The Will Of Heaven.

When We Talk About The Foreign, The Question Becomes One Of Us Versus Them. But In The End, Is One Just The Opposite Side Of The Other?

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.

Under The Rules Of A Society That Cannot Distinguish Between Profit And Profiteering, Between Money Defined As Necessity And Money Defined As Luxury, Murder Is Occasionally Obligatory And Always Permissible.

Of What Does Politics Consist Except The Making Of Imperfect Decisions, Many Of Them Unjust And Quite A Few Of Them Deadly?

Construed As A Means Instead Of An End, History Is The Weapon With Which We Defend The Future Against The Past.

The More Prosperous And Settled A Nation, The More Readily It Tends To Think Of War As A Regrettable Accident; To Nations Less Fortunate The Chance Of War Presents Itself As A Possible Bountiful Friend.

Leadership Consists Not In Degrees Of Technique But In Traits Of Character; It Requires Moral Rather Than Athletic Or Intellectual Effort, And It Imposes On Both Leader And Follower Alike The Burdens Of Self-restraint.