Economics is not about things and tangible material objects; it is about men, their meanings and actions.

...the only means to well-being is to increase the quantity of products. This is what business aims at.

What pays under capitalism is satisfying the common man, the customer. The more people you satisfy, the better for you.

The first condition for the establishment of perpetual peace is the general adoption of the principles of laissez-faire capitalism.

Business is a means- the only means- to increase the quantity of goods available for preserving life and rendering it more agreeable.

The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer classes have adopted a certain way of living, producers have an incentive to improve the methods of manufacture so that soon it is possible for the poorer classes to follow suit. Thus luxury furthers progress. Innovation "is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. The luxury today is the necessity of tomorrow." Luxury is the roadmaker of progress: it develops latent needs and makes people discontented. In so far as they think consistently, moralists who condemn luxury must recommend the comparatively desireless existence of the wild life roaming in the woods as the ultimate ideal of civilized life.