"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure,
but from hope to hope." -- Samuel Johnson. Explains a lot about politics,
consumerism, and romance :<)
"Money is coined liberty." Dostoyevsky. Better than Das Kapital, and
somewhat shorter.
"Success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances
to merit. To the crowd, success wears almost the features of true
mastery, and the greatest dupe of this counterfeit talent is
History." -- Victor Hugo. Words to recall again and again in a
post-Calvinist nation where material success is seen as a sign of a state
of Grace.