“We have been in a process of attaining a great degree of luxury, degrees of luxury which distract us… and we are consumed with such matters as wrap-around octophonic sound in our automobiles and so forth, we are becoming quite sophisticated with respect to non-necessities. This has happened to nations in the past, and it is my belief that man can cope with adversity, and that his most difficult problem, is coping with prosperity.”

Jeremiah http://www.pbs.org/video/alabama-public-television-documentaries-jeremiah/ (2015) 44:22.

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American Vietnam War POW and politician 1924–2014

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Le luxe absorbe tout: on le blâme, mais il faut l'imiter; et le superflu finit par priver du nécessaire.
Letter 104: La Marquise de Merteuil to Madame de Volanges. Trans. P.W.K. Stone (1961). http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Liaisons_dangereuses_-_Lettre_104
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