In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men's eyes.
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In order to stand well in the eyes of the community, it is necessary to come up to a certain, somewhat indefinite, conventional standard of wealth.
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It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.
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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
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