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

Bureaucracy turns life into paperwork.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

The past teaches us that change is possible.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Solidarity is the soul of social movements.

The Democracy Project 2013

Value emerges from creativity, not scarcity.

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value 2001

Freedom means the power to invent ourselves.

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology 2004

Jobs that serve no purpose breed resentment.

Bullshit Jobs 2018

History is written by those who resist.

Direct Action: An Ethnography 2009

Imagination without action is mere daydreaming.

The Democracy Project 2013

The absurdities of modern life are bureaucratic inventions.

The Utopia of Rules 2015

Debt is a promise crystallized into a thing.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years 2011

Anthropology reveals the diversity of human worlds.

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value 2001

True wealth is time well spent.

Bullshit Jobs 2018

Revolution is not a spectacle; it's participation.

Direct Action: An Ethnography 2009