David Graeber

Anthropology American 1961 – 2020 53 quotes

An anarchist anthropologist known for his work on debt, bureaucracy, and the history of money, and his activism in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Quotes by David Graeber

Stories are the most basic form of magic.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

To challenge a paradigm, you have to show that something has been left out.

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value 2001

The essence of bureaucracy is to make the impossible possible by ignoring reality.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

Debt jubilee is not a fantasy; it's a historical reality.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Humans are social beings, and society is what we make it.

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology 2004

The real question is not why some people have less, but why so many have so much.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Imagination is the real revolutionary force.

The Democracy Project 2013

Bullshit is everywhere, but it's the jobs that institutionalize it.

Bullshit Jobs 2018

Value is not inherent; it's created through social relations.

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value 2001

The state is a fiction we all agree to believe in.

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology 2004

Happiness is not found in possessions, but in meaningful action.

Bullshit Jobs 2018

Anthropologists study what makes us human, which is everything we do together.

Direct Action: An Ethnography 2009

The future is a collective creation.

The Democracy Project 2013

Laughter is the best form of rebellion.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

Debt creates moral obligations that bind societies.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Rebellion starts with small acts of defiance.

Direct Action: An Ethnography 2009

The universe is made of stories, not atoms.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

Work that doesn't matter destroys the soul.

Bullshit Jobs 2018

Economics should be about human flourishing, not profit.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Anarchy is order without coercion.

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology 2004