Frederick Soddy

“It is a curious thought that the earliest description of the steam-engine in antiquity describes its use for the magic opening of the temple doors, when the priests lit the fires on the altars, to deceive the populace into ascribing to a deity what was the work of the engineer. In much the same way today, the almost boundless fecundity of the creative scientific discoveries and inventions of the age are being appropriated for the purpose of the mysterious opening of doors into the holy of holies of the temples of mammon by a hierarchy of imposters and humbugs, whom it is the first task of a sane civilization to expose and clear out.”

“The ruling passion of the age is to convert wealth into debt in order toderive a permanent future income from it - to convert wealth that perishesinto debt that endures, debt that does not rot, costs nothing to maintain,and brings in perennial interest.”