“When a social construct (gold as money) survives for 6,000 years, I would expect curious people to inquire as to whether it is tied to some immutable underlying law, or otherwise investigate if there is something more here than meets the eye. Not so curiously inclined, our court economists prefer to write this off as a 6,000 year delusion. That says a lot about the sorry state of the economics discipline today.” - A Financial Times reader responds to Citigroup economist Willem Buiter’s description of gold as a “6,000 year-old bubble”, July 2012. “I don’t think the question really is what is gold worth, but what are currencies not worth.” - Shayne McGuire, Director of Global Research at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, October 2009.

“Advertising is a valuable economic factor because is the cheapest way of selling goods, especially if the goods are worthless.” - Sinclair Lewis.

“Now, if you believe a lot of popular history, with books written by people like Jared Diamond, you believe that the elevation of European societies was due to external factors like the environment, or the exploitation of other peoples.

“Instead of souls we have neuroses, instead of sacraments we have shows.” - Norman O Brown, reviewing Philip Rieff’s The Triumph of the Therepeutic.