“ Let inventive men cease to spend their existence incessantly contriving how cotton can be made cheaper ”
Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843). copy citation
| Author | Thomas Carlyle |
|---|---|
| Source | Past and Present |
| Topic | existence |
| Date | 1843 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13534/pg13534-images.html |
Context
“we will be content to equal-sell them; to be happy selling equally with them! I do not see the use of underselling them. Cotton-cloth is already two-pence a yard or lower; and yet bare backs were never more numerous among us. Let inventive men cease to spend their existence incessantly contriving how cotton can be made cheaper; and try to invent, a little, how cotton at its present cheapness could be somewhat justlier divided among us! Let inventive men consider, Whether the Secret of this Universe, and of Man's Life there, does, after all, as we rashly fancy it, consist in making money?”
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