Exchange Quotes

“We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word, and never recklessly throw around words. One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence and start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Every man lives by exchanging.”
― Adam Smith

“Tonight, let us exchange every part of our bodies and every space of our souls to each other.”
― Suman Pokhrel, मलाई जिन्दगी नै दुख्दछ [Malai Zindagi Nai Dukhdachha]

“May I exchange T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland
with the future of this earth like a lunatic’s dreams
and make one season of poetry farming
by tilling with the pen of desire.”
― Suman Pokhrel

“I shall bestow you my love, and you give me yours.”
― Suman Pokhrel

“Our whole culture is based on the appetite for buying, on the idea of a mutually favorable exchange. Modern man's happiness consists in the thrill of looking at the shop windows, and in buying all that he can afford to buy, either for cash or on installments. He (or she) looks at people in a similar way. For the man an attractive girl—and for the woman an attractive man—are the prizes they are after. 'Attractive' usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. During the twenties, a drinking and smoking girl, tough and sexy, was attractive; today the fashion demands more domesticity and coyness. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of this century, a man had to be aggressive and ambitious—today he has to be social and tolerant—in order to be an attractive 'package'. At any rate, the sense of falling in love develops usually only with regard to such human commodities as are within reach of one's own possibilities for exchange. I am out for a bargain; the object should be desirable from the standpoint of its social value, and at the same time should want me, considering my overt and hidden assets and potentialities. Two persons thus fall in love when they feel they have found the best object available on the market, considering the limitations of their own exchange values. Often, as in buying real estate, the hidden potentialities which can be developed play a considerable role in this bargain. In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labor market.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“souls connect
&
souls tie.
intertwine humbly and
with care.”
― alexandra elle

“In crypto, everyday is not a green day, but true holders will later get paid.”
― Olawale Daniel

“People have to be able to access your businesses product or service. They have to notice your product or service among alternatives. And they have to feel an authentic connection.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business for Beginners: Getting Started

“In all your doings and dealings, personal or professional, for selflessness or consideration; exchange goodness of positive vibes. Be a good karmic being.”
― Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, Debit Credit of Life: from the good books of accounts

“If nothing else, Alice, you will have sight of one of the grandest buildings in the city, one of the grandest ever built, in fact. That florid thing cost three hundred eighty thousand dollars to erect! It is as ornate as a cathedral. But, oh so mixed up. A bit of everything thrown in---Second Empire, Renaissance, Italian, with Corinthian columns, no less. Gold ceiling medallions, frescoes, murals, sculptures--- even a fountain, where the futures are sold. Well, not in the fountain.” Constance laughed uncertainly. “And an ornate steam elevator… Well, just don’t bid on the cotton futures.”
― Diane C. McPhail, The Seamstress of New Orleans

“This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness. Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God. By his own descent to the earth he has prepared our ascent to heaven. Having received our mortality, he has bestowed on us his immortality. Having undertaken our weakness, he has made us strong in his strength. Having submitted to our poverty, he has transferred to us his riches. Having taken upon himself the burden of unrighteousness with which we were oppressed, he has clothed us with his righteousness.”
― John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

“In this world there are many, many situations where giving someone something doesn't necessarily mean you'll receive anything in return. When you choose to give, you must remember this, or else the only one hurt will be you.”
― Meng Xi Shi, Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu (Novel) Vol. 2

“The garden asks only that I weed it and water it. And in exchange for something that demands so little of me, my tiny garden toils day and night to produce a harvest that demands everything of it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“How did general prosperity encompass the entire world? Here the answer is that prosperity rises, first slowly and then increasinly fast, in all places where people can engage in peaceful and voluntary exchanges. Trade and the innovations that it makes possible provide the only known escape route from poverty.”
― Pascal Boyer, Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create

“n such a society [a commodity producing society], an objective social factor
constitutes the basis of exchange relations: the socially necessary
labour time embodied in the things exchanged. In communist society, on
the other hand, the only basis of exchange is a subjective equalization,
an equal desire.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“They (the commodity producers') social relations appear
simply as private exchange arrangements. After all, exchange as such is
essentially a personal transaction. All that is necessary for an act of
exchange is that the parties have things to exchange and the desire to
exchange them. In that sense, exchange is a phenomenon known to all
social systems because they are all familiar with property.

In fact, the exchange of a pen for a piece of chalk in school, or the
exchange of a horse for an automobile between two members of a socialist
society, is a private affair, of no interest to theoretical economics.
It is the basic error of the marginal utility theory that it seeks to
discover the laws of capitalist society by an analysis of exchange as a
purely private transaction'. R. Hilferding, 'Zur Problemstellung der
theoretischen Nationalökonomie bei Karl Marx', /Die Neue Zeit, XXIII, /1
(1904-5), p. 106.”
― Rudolph Hiferding

“Social production is thus a condition of exchange
among individuals, and only in this way are they integrated into society
and enabled to share in the aggregate social product which has to be
distributed among them.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“Exchange converts a good into a commodity, an object no longer intended
for the satisfaction of an individual need or brought into existence and
vanishing with that need. On the contrary, it is intended for society,
and its fate, now dependent on the laws which govern the social
circulation of goods, can be far more capricious than that of Odysseus;
for what is one-eyed Polyphemus compared with the argus-eyed customs
officials of Newport, or the fair Circe compared with the German meat
inspectors? It has become a commodity because its producers participate
in a specific social relationship in which they have to confront each
other as independent producers. Originally a natural, quite
unproblematic thing, a good comes to express a social relation, acquires
a social aspect. It is a product of labour, no longer merely a natural
quality but a social phenomenon. We must therefore discover the law
which governs this society as a producing and working community.
Individual labour now appears in a new aspect, as part of the total
labour force over which society disposes, and only from this point of
view does it appear as value-creating labour.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“Exchange is thus accessible to analysis because it not only satisfies
individual needs, but is also a social necessity which makes individual
need its instrument while at the same time limiting its satisfaction.
For a need can be satisfied only to the extent that social necessity
will permit. It is of course a presupposition, for human society is
inconceivable without the satisfaction of individual needs. This does
not mean, however, that exchange is simply a function of individual
need, as indeed it would be in a collectivist economy, but that
individual needs are satisfied only to the extent that exchange allows
them to participate in the product of society. It is this participation
which determines exchange. The latter appears to be simply a
quantitative ratio between two things,[4] <#n4> which is determined when
this quantity is determined. The quantity which is turned over in
exchange, however, counts only as a part of social production, which
itself is quantitatively determined by the labour time that society
assigns to it. Society is here conceived as an entity which employs its
collective labour power to produce the total output, while the
individual and his labour power count only as organs of that society. In
that role, the individual shares in the product to the extent that his
own labour power participates, on average, in the total labour power
(assuming the intensity and productivity of labour to be fixed). If he
works too slowly or if his work produces something useless (an otherwise
useful article would be considered useless if it constituted an excess
of goods in circulation), his labour power is scaled down to average
labour time, i.e. socially necessary labour time. The aggregate labour
time for the total product, once given, must therefore find expression
in exchange. In its simplest form, this happens when the quantitative
ratios between goods exchanged correspond to the quantitative ratios of
the socially necessary labour time expended in their production.
Commodities would in that case exchange at their values.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“In fact, this can happen only when the conditions for commodity
production and exchange are equal for all members of society; that is to
say, when they are all independent owners of their means of production
who use these means to fabricate the product and exchange it on the
market. This is the most elementary relationship, and constitutes the
starting point for a theoretical analysis. Only on this basis can later
modifications be understood; but they must always satisfy the condition
that, whatever the nature of an individual exchange may be, the sum of
exchange acts must clear the market of the total product. Any
modification can be induced only by a change in the position of the
members of society within production. In fact, the modification must
take place in this manner because production and the producers can only
be integrated as a social unit through the operation of the exchange
process. Thus the expropriation of one section of society and the
monopolization of the means of production by another modify the exchange
process, because only there can the fact of social inequality appear.
However, since the exchange relationship is one of equality, social
inequality must assume the form of a parity of prices of production
rather than an equality of value. In other words, the inequality in the
expenditure of labour (which is a matter of indifference to capitalists
since it is the labour expenditure of others) is concealed behind an
equalization of the rate of profit. This kind of equality simply
underlines the fact that capital is the decisive factor in a capitalist
society. The individual act of exchange no longer has to satisfy the
requirement that units of labour in exchange shall be equal, and instead
the principle now prevails that equal profits shall accrue to equal
capitals. The equalization of labour is replaced by the equalization of
profit, and products are sold not at their values, but at their prices
of production.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“If the exchange act may thus be regarded as a creation of society, it is
no less true to say that both society and the individual become aware of
this only after exchanges have been completed. The work of an individual
is, first and foremost, his own individual endeavour, motivated by his
own self-interest. It is his personal labour, not the labour of society.
But whether or not it conforms with the requirements of the total
circulation of goods, of which his labour is necessarily a component
part, can be determined only when all the component elements have been
compared and the aggregate requirements of that circulation have been
completely satisfied.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“Commodities are the embodiment of socially necessary labour time. But
labour time as such is not expressed directly, as it is in the society
envisaged by Rodbertus, in which the central authority establishes the
unit of labour time which it will accept as valid for each commodity.
Labour time is expressed only in the exchange commensurability of two
articles. Thus the value of an article, i.e., its average time of
production, is not expressed directly as eight, ten or twelve hours, but
as a specific quantity of another article. In other words, a natural
object with all its material attributes expresses the equivalent value
of another thing. For example, in the equation, one coat equals twenty
metres of linen, the twenty metres of linen are the equivalent of one
coat simply because both are embodiments of socially necessary labour
time. It is in this sense that all commodities are commensurable.”
― Rudolph Hiferding, Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development

“Money as a medium of exchange actually represents somebody's portion of his or her life; to obtain it they exchanged goods, services, time, effort, skill, or talent. To acquire it means they are willing to exchange some portion of their life, so it has to be worth the exchange.”
― Dr. Lucas D. Shallua

“Don't you want me to heal your arm?' His fingers tightened around my elbow.

'At what cost?' I shot back, but kept my head against the stone, needing its damp strength.

'Ah, that. Living among faeries has taught you some of our ways.'

I focused on the feeling of my good hand on my knee- focused on the dry mud beneath my fingernails.

'I'll make a trade with you,' he said casually, and gently set my arm down. As it met with the floor, I had to close my eyes to brace against the flow of the poisoned lightning. 'I'll heal your arm in exchange for you. For two weeks every month, two weeks of my choosing, you'll live with me at the Night Court. Starting after this messy three-trials business.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Some people exchange comfort for vulnerability. It's a dangerous transaction.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“We, who so often think we're cultureless, can unpack a galaxy of stories from one garden weed. But the time has come for us to understand what these stories mean to us, and to reconnect with the other stories, too, which are all waiting for us in our gardens and surging up from the cracks in the pavement. We must tell them to our children, so that they can't imagine living without them. Telling them is an act of belonging, a way of pushing taproots deep into the ground. In a world full of restless and displaced people, it's an act of welcome, too. When we tell the stories of the things that inhabit our land, we help newcomers to read the deep terrain around them and perhaps to feel a little more at home. And storytelling is always an exchange; when we listen to what is told to us, we enrich our mythology. We get closer to the big beautiful metaphorical whole.”
― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

“Free speech is the antidote to tyranny, a powerful force that dismantles the walls of oppression and allows the sunlight of scrutiny to pierce through the darkest corners of governance. To compromise on free speech is to compromise on the very essence of democracy, for it is through the unrestricted exchange of ideas that we safeguard the principles of accountability, transparency, and ultimately, the empowerment of the governed.”
― James William Steven Parker

“Free speech is the guardian of individual autonomy, a shield that allows each person to shape their own beliefs and values independent of external coercion. It is through the free exchange of ideas that individuals are exposed to diverse perspectives, broadening their understanding of the world and fostering empathy. In this way, free speech serves not only as a right but as a conduit for the continual enrichment of our collective humanity.”
― James William Steven Parker

“Wokeism's inclination to cancel individuals for expressing dissenting opinions, even in the realm of comedy, is a dangerous manifestation of intolerance. Free speech thrives in an environment where ideas, no matter how provocative or humorous, can be freely exchanged. Cancel culture, in its attempt to police language and thought, erodes the foundations of a society that values diversity of opinion. Comedy, with its ability to illuminate uncomfortable truths, should be a space where creativity flourishes, not one constrained by the fear of cancellation for exploring the boundaries of social norms.”
― James William Steven Parker