“There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves”

“This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity, and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products”

“Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.”

“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”

“The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.”

“It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel and destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.”