C. Wright Mills Quotes

A collection of quotes by C. Wright Mills.

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) was an influential American sociologist and writer. He is best known for his critical analysis of power structures in society and his contributions to the field of sociological imagination. Mills argued that individuals should strive to connect their personal experiences with larger social issues, emphasizing the importance of understanding the relationship between individual lives and historical context. His most famous work, "The Power Elite," examined the concentration of power among a small group of political, economic, and military leaders in the United States.

The family provides the army and navy with the best men and

The family provides the army and navy with the best men and boys that it possesses. And, as we have seen, education and science too are becoming means to the ends sought by the military.

C. Wright Mills

Men Education Science Family Theend

America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, n

America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub.

C. Wright Mills

Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the

Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.

C. Wright Mills

The life-fate of the modern individual depends not only upon

The life-fate of the modern individual depends not only upon the family into which he was born or which he enters by marriage, but increasingly upon the corporation in which he spends the most alert hours of his best years.

C. Wright Mills

Career Vocation

Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are,

Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.

C. Wright Mills

Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person

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 institutions.

C. Wright Mills

The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning

The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.

C. Wright Mills

In the world of the celebrity, the hierarchy of publicity ha

In the world of the celebrity, the hierarchy of publicity has replaced the hierarchy of descent and even of great wealth.

C. Wright Mills

The nearest the modern general or admiral comes to a small-a

The nearest the modern general or admiral comes to a small-arms encounter of any sort is at a duck hunt in the company of corporation executives at the retreat of Continental Motors, Inc.

C. Wright Mills

Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the politic

Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests.

C. Wright Mills

Prestige is the shadow of money and power.

Prestige is the shadow of money and power.

C. Wright Mills

Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a socie

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

C. Wright Mills