Public Accounts

Famous quotes containing the words public and/or accounts:

    ... here hundreds sit and play Bingo; here the bright lights of Broadway burn through a sea haze; here Somebodies tumble over other Somebodies and over Nobodies as well.
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    The mystical nature of American consumption accounts for its joylessness. We spend a great deal of time in stores, but if we don’t seem to take much pleasure in our buying, it’s because we’re engaged in the acts of sacrifice and self-definition. Abashed in the presence of expensive merchandise, we recognize ourselves ... as supplicants admitted to a shrine.
    Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)