The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Economy Editions)

calling

• Every hour lost is lost to labour for the glory of God; inactive contemplation is valueless, or even directly reprehensible if at the expense of one's daily work.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-100

• Luther repudiated the tendency to surpass worldly morality by withdrawal; Calvinism took this over, anchoring holiness inside the world.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-078

work-as-meaning

• The idea of duty in one's calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs — victorious capitalism needs its support no longer.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-116

• Ruthless acquisition bound to no ethical norms is as old as history; what matters is the specifically modern capitalistic spirit as a disciplined mass phenomenon.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-039

faith-and-doubt

• Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will — the Westminster Confession's predestination doctrine shaped a whole culture of anxious self-examination.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-064

• The full economic effect of great religious movements came only after peak religious enthusiasm was past; the search for the Kingdom of God commenced to dissolve into sober economic virtue.

  VLA-5CD080FA-RC-112