"A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand."

"The economist is inside the squirrel cage and turning with it. Any question about absolute values belongs to the sphere, not of economics, but of religion. And it is very possible that we cannot deal with economics at all, unless we can see economy from outside the cage; that we cannot begin to settle the relative values without considering absolute values. And if so, this may give a very precise and practical meaning to the words: 'seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.'...I am persuaded that the reason why the Churches are in so much difficulty about giving a lead in the economic sphere is because they are trying to fit a Christian standard of economics to a wholly false and pagan understanding of work."

"It is the business of the Church to recognize that the secular vocation, as such, is sacred."

"No piety in the worker will compensate for work that is not true to itself; for any work that is untrue to its own technique is a living lie."

"We are coming to the end of an era of civilization which began by pandering to the public demand, and ended by frantically trying to create public demand for an output so false and meaningless that even a doped public revolted from the trash offered to it and plunged into war rather than swallow any more of it."

-----Dorothy Sayers, excerpts from the essay, "Why Work?", found in the collection, "Creed or Chaos: Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe). Originally Delivered, April 23, 1942.