Max Weber

The 'iron cage' is a powerful image of the constraints placed upon individuals by rationalized systems.

The 'charisma' of a leader is a source of revolutionary change and social transformation.

The 'calling' is a concept that links religious belief to economic activity.

Man does not live by bread alone, but in fact, he does not live at all without bread.

A 'vocation' is a calling from God, or at least from the market.

The more the 'spirit' of capitalism developed, the more it became independent of its religious roots.

The 'iron cage' of rationality is not a comfortable dwelling.

The modern capitalist economy is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things.

The professional politician is a man who lives 'off' politics, as a paid official, or 'for' politics, as a passionate amateur.

The most important thing is to be clear about the facts, even if they are inconvenient.

The academic is a strange creature, often more concerned with footnotes than with the world.

One cannot be a politician and a scholar at the same time, for they are different vocations.

The 'calling' is a religious concept, but it has been secularized into a career.

The modern world is a world of specialists, and that is its strength and its weakness.

The 'spirit' of capitalism is not about greed, but about rational calculation.

The politician must be a man of faith, but also a man of reason.

The 'disenchantment of the world' means that we no longer believe in magic, but in science.

The bureaucrat is a cog in a machine, but a very important cog.

The 'calling' is a burden, but also a source of meaning.

The modern individual is trapped in a system of his own making.