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.

If anything needs to get fixed in society it's people's consumption of other people's problems.

In a repressive society a writer can be deeply influential but in a society that's filled with glut and repetition and endless consumption the act of terror may be the only meaningful act.

The model of ownership in a society organized round mass consumption is addiction.

The only country where you see any positive movement within domestic consumption is Brazil where you really do have a variety of coffees to make blends with.

Conserving energy and thus saving money reducing consumption of unnecessary products and packaging and shifting to a clean-energy economy would likely hurt the bottom line of polluting industries but would undoubtedly have positive effects for most of us.

Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases.

Most of the movies I saw growing up were viewed as totally disposable fine for quick consumption but they have survived 50 years and are still growing.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house for hundreds of years. It is not then an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital and often in the case of professional men setting out in life it is their only capital.

It is not government's job to mandate responsibility on our behalf. We have the intelligence and good sense to make wise consumption choices for ourselves and our children. It is up to us to do what is best for our health and our children's health.