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Top 25 David Riesman Quotes (2025 Update)

David Riesman Quote: “Words not only affect us temporarily; they change us, they socialize or unsocialize us.”

1. “Words not only affect us temporarily; they change us, they socialize or unsocialize us.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Nowadays, truth is the greatest news. The mass media are the wholesalers, the peer groups, the retailers of the communications industry.”

2. “Nowadays, truth is the greatest news. The mass media are the wholesalers, the peer groups, the retailers of the communications industry.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “It is no longer clear which way is up even if one wants to rise.”

3. “It is no longer clear which way is up even if one wants to rise.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.”

4. “America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “The premonition of death may for many be a stimulus to novelty of experience: the imminence of death serves to sweep away the inessential preoccupations for those who do not flee from the thought of death into triviality.”

5. “The premonition of death may for many be a stimulus to novelty of experience: the imminence of death serves to sweep away the inessential preoccupations for those who do not flee from the thought of death into triviality.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.”

6. “Men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women.”

7. “If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Etiquette can be at the same time a means of approaching people and of staying clear of them.”

8. “Etiquette can be at the same time a means of approaching people and of staying clear of them.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Drivers in a traffic jam, frustrated by each others presence, are not the most amiable of men.”

9. “Drivers in a traffic jam, frustrated by each others presence, are not the most amiable of men.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.”

10. “Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference.”

11. “The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “One of the things people are fleeing when they leave the city is the need either to reject people who are less well educated than themselves, or to accept them with all that implies for their children’s education and future placement in the society.”

12. “One of the things people are fleeing when they leave the city is the need either to reject people who are less well educated than themselves, or to accept them with all that implies for their children’s education and future placement in the society.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “If you want to get out of medicine the fullest enjoyment, be students all your lives.”

13. “If you want to get out of medicine the fullest enjoyment, be students all your lives.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “The closest thing we have to the traditional ideology of the leisure class is a group of artists and intellectuals who regard their work as play and their play as work.”

14. “The closest thing we have to the traditional ideology of the leisure class is a group of artists and intellectuals who regard their work as play and their play as work.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Why, I ask, isn’t it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it?”

15. “Why, I ask, isn’t it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it?”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “In preindustrial cultures leisure is scarcely a burden or a “problem” because it is built into the ritual and ground plan of life for which people are conditioned in childhood; often they possess a relatively timeless attitude toward events.”

16. “In preindustrial cultures leisure is scarcely a burden or a “problem” because it is built into the ritual and ground plan of life for which people are conditioned in childhood; often they possess a relatively timeless attitude toward events.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Mass entertainment in America has been dominated for a long time by the mode of documentary realism.”

17. “Mass entertainment in America has been dominated for a long time by the mode of documentary realism.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “It is not new for the older generation to bewail the indolence of the young, and there is a tendency for the latter to maintain much of the older ethic screened by a new semantics and an altered ideology.”

18. “It is not new for the older generation to bewail the indolence of the young, and there is a tendency for the latter to maintain much of the older ethic screened by a new semantics and an altered ideology.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Those who are excluded from meaningful work are, by an large, excluded from meaningful play.”

19. “Those who are excluded from meaningful work are, by an large, excluded from meaningful play.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “There is evidence that young men in the big law firms, although they still work harder than most of their clients, do not glory in putting in night work and weekend hours as they once did.”

20. “There is evidence that young men in the big law firms, although they still work harder than most of their clients, do not glory in putting in night work and weekend hours as they once did.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “The situation of the factory worker today is reminiscent in certain respects of that of the nineteenth-century capitalist whose wife dragged him reluctantly toward “culture” and away from his “materialistic” preoccupations.”

21. “The situation of the factory worker today is reminiscent in certain respects of that of the nineteenth-century capitalist whose wife dragged him reluctantly toward “culture” and away from his “materialistic” preoccupations.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “There has been a change in heroes within the working-class community.”

22. “There has been a change in heroes within the working-class community.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “It is among the less privileged groups relatively new to leisure and consumption that the zest for possessions retains something of its pristine energy.”

23. “It is among the less privileged groups relatively new to leisure and consumption that the zest for possessions retains something of its pristine energy.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Though top executives may work as hard as ever-in part perhaps because, being trained in an earlier day, they can hardly help doing so-their subordinates are somewhat less work-minded.”

24. “Though top executives may work as hard as ever-in part perhaps because, being trained in an earlier day, they can hardly help doing so-their subordinates are somewhat less work-minded.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “Today the future occupation of all moppets is to be skilled consumers.”

25. “Today the future occupation of all moppets is to be skilled consumers.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “A decline of exuberance is just barely noticeable in America, making itself felt particularly among the most highly educated and the well-to-do in a loss of appetite for work and perhaps even for leisure.”

26. “A decline of exuberance is just barely noticeable in America, making itself felt particularly among the most highly educated and the well-to-do in a loss of appetite for work and perhaps even for leisure.”

— David Riesman

David Riesman Quote: “The children themselves, before they get access to a car, are captives of their suburb, save for those families where the housewives surrender continuity in their own lives to chauffeur their children to lessons, doctors, and other services that could be reached via public transport in the city.”

27. “The children themselves, before they get access to a car, are captives of their suburb, save for those families where the housewives surrender continuity in their own lives to chauffeur their children to lessons, doctors, and other services that could be reached via public transport in the city.”

— David Riesman

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