Quotes by C. Wright Mills

“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.”

“P6-the sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within sociey.”

“Once war was considered the business of soldiers, international relations the concern of diplomats. But now that war has become seemingly total and seemingly permanent, the free sport of kings has ...”

“p5-what they need..is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what may be happeni...”

“Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available ...”

“Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major ins...”

“Prestige is the shadow of money and power.”

“Those in authority within institutions and social structures attempt to justify their rule by linking it, as if it were a necessary consequence, with moral symbols, sacred emblems, or legal formula...”

“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to belie...”

“The more we understand what is happening in the world, the more frustrated we often become, for our knowledge leads to feelings of powerlessness. We feel that we are living in a world in which the ...”

“When white-collar people get jobs they sell not only their time and energy but their personalities as well. They sell by week or month their smiles and their kindly gestures and they must prac...”

“When white-collar people get jobs they sell not only their time and energy but their personalities as well. They sell by week or month their smiles and their kindly gestures and they must practise ...”