WIST Quotations

Lincoln, Abraham -- (Spurious)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:18:37 +0000

We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war, which has cost a vast treasure of blood and money, is almost over. But I see in the future a crisis approaching which fills me with anxiety. As a result of the war, corporations have become enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its rule by preying upon the prejudice of the people, until all wealth is concentrated in a few hands, and the Republic destroyed. I feel at this time more anxiety for the future of my country than at any time in the past, even in the midst of war.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861–65)
(Spurious)

Variants:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country [...] corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the rebellion.

The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace, and it conspires against it in times of adversity. It’s more despotic than monarchy. It’s more insolent than autocracy. It’s more selfish than bureaucracy. [...] Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed.

This is most often cited as being from a letter (1864-11-21) to Colonel William F. Elkins, a personal friend of Lincoln's. Other attributions included a message from Lincoln to Congress, or from other speeches, or in one case to a message from Lincoln from beyond the grave during a seance. It may be traceable to a pamphlet by the Caldwell Remedy Company (1888-05-10). It came to wide prominence during the 1896 presidential election, when the powers of corporations, trusts, and robber barons were under wide populist attack.

The quotation was researched and rejected by Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln's personal secretaries, as well as by his son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Further, Lincoln worked as a corporate lawyer on a number of occasions, and never seemed particularly concerned about corporations or their concentration of wealth. Nevertheless, the spurious quotation and variants regularly pop up in essays, speeches, and opinion pieces even today.

For more information about this quotation and its background (including much of the information above), see:

Thomas F Schwartz, "Lincoln Never Said That," For the People (newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1999).
Did Abraham Lincoln Warn of the Tyranny of Capitalism? | Snopes.com.
Essay (1939-11-06), "Sources of Traditional Quotations," Lincoln Lore," No. 552 (Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation).
Getting Wrong with Lincoln | Origins.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 2 “Shopkeepers at War,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:52:35 +0000

Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes.
Internally, Germany has a good deal in common with a Socialist state. Ownership has never been abolished, there are still capitalists and workers, and — this is the important point, and the real reason why rich men all over the world tend to sympathise with Fascism — generally speaking the same people are capitalists and the same people workers as before the Nazi revolution. But at the same time the State, which is simply the Nazi Party, is in control of everything. […]
But the idea underlying Fascism is irreconcilably different from that which underlies Socialism. Socialism aims, ultimately, at a world-state of free and equal human beings. It takes equality of human rights for granted. Nazism assumes just the opposite. The driving force behind the Nazi movement is the belief in human inequality, the superiority of Germans to all other races, the right of Germany to rule the world.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 2 “Shopkeepers at War,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]
(Source)

Berry, Wendell -- Essay (1988), “Economy and Pleasure,” What Are People For? (1990)

Dave — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 20:10:59 +0000

It is impossible not to notice how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about honesty, which is the fundamental economic virtue, and how very little they have to say about community, compassion, and mutual help.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1988), “Economy and Pleasure,” What Are People For? (1990)
(Source)

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1991-02), “Season of Drear,” The Progressive

Dave — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 14:51:24 +0000

Seems to me it’s a simple concept — the concentration of wealth is a Bad Idea. Since capital tends to concentrate, it is one of the functions of government to oppose this tendency. That’s why we used to have antimonopoly laws and the like.
When you see government encouraging the concentration of wealth, check your wallet.

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1991-02), “Season of Drear,” The Progressive
(Source)

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Message (1938-04-29) to Congress, On Curbing Monopolies

Dave — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 21:04:59 +0000

Competition, of course, like all other good things, can be carried to excess. Competition should not extend to fields where it has demonstrably bad social and economic consequences. The exploitation of child labor, the chiseling of workers’ wages, the stretching of workers’ hours, are not necessary, fair or proper methods of competition.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Message (1938-04-29) to Congress, On Curbing Monopolies
(Source)

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Message (1938-04-29) to Congress, On Curbing Monopolies

Dave — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 21:07:09 +0000

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing. This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Message (1938-04-29) to Congress, On Curbing Monopolies
(Source)

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, “Art,” “Brandalism” (2005)

Dave — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:33:06 +0000

You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Art,” “Brandalism” (2005)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 9 “Working Aristocracy” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:55:55 +0000

In brief, all this Mammon-Gospel, of Supply-and-demand, Competition, Laissez-faire, and Devil take the hindmost, begins to be one of the shabbiest Gospels ever preached on Earth; or altogether the shabbiest.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 9 “Working Aristocracy” (1843)
(Source)

Nin, Anais -- Diary (1957, Spring)

Dave — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:27:02 +0000

Big Business and Politics are twins, they are the monsters who kill everything, corrupt everything.

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1957, Spring)
(Source)

Hanauer, Nick -- Lecture (2019-07) “The Dirty Secret of Capitalism — and a New Way Forward,” TEDsummit, Edinburgh

Dave — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:27:40 +0000

Greed is not good. Being rapacious doesn’t make you a capitalist, it makes you a sociopath. And in an economy as dependent upon cooperation at scale as ours, sociopathy is as bad for business as it is for society.

Nick Hanauer (b. 1959) American entrepreneur and venture capitalist [Nicolas Joseph Hanauer]
Lecture (2019-07) “The Dirty Secret of Capitalism — and a New Way Forward,” TEDsummit, Edinburgh
(Source)

(Source (Video), 14:19)

West, Cornel -- Democracy Matters, ch. 6 (2004)

Dave — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 17:26:04 +0000

Even within the university world, where the highest calling should be to spark the fires of intellectual exploration and to prepare young minds for engaged and productive participation in our democracy, the mandates of the market have attained prominence. The narrow quest for success crowds out the noble effort to be great — greatness understood as using one’s success to make the world a better place for all.

Cornel West (b. 1953) American philosopher, political activist, social critic
Democracy Matters, ch. 6 (2004)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- “Competitive Ethics,” New York American (1934-03-19)

Dave — Thu, 04 May 2023 15:35:49 +0000

Competition, as an ideal, had its part to play in the pioneer days of both industrialism and Western agriculture. But its day is past, and a new type of man is needed. The problem of producing goods in sufficient quantities to make general material well-being technically possible was solved by the men of the competitive era. The problem that remains is one of distribution, not of production; it can be solved only by economic justice, not by economic war. For this problem, the mentality of the competitive era is unfitted, since it is only to be solved by co-operation.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Competitive Ethics,” New York American (1934-03-19)
(Source)

Le Guin, Ursula K. -- Speech, accepting the National Book Foundation Medal (19 Nov 2014)

Dave — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 23:51:02 +0000

Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
Speech, accepting the National Book Foundation Medal (19 Nov 2014)
(Source)

On receiving the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards. Video of the speech.

King, Martin Luther -- “The Three Evils,” Keynote Speech, National Conference for New Politics, Chicago (31 Aug 1967)

Dave — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 21:26:39 +0000

Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that Capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves, and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Three Evils,” Keynote Speech, National Conference for New Politics, Chicago (31 Aug 1967)
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1929-07-15), “Daily Telegram”

Dave — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:27:14 +0000

When the judgment day comes, civilization will have an alibi: “I never took a human life, I only sold the fellow the gun to take it with.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist
Column (1929-07-15), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Halsey, Margaret -- The Folks at Home, “The Five O’Clock Shadow over the United States” (1952)

Dave — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:09:19 +0000

The crucial disadvantage of aggression, competitiveness, and skepticism as national characteristics is that these qualities cannot be turned off at five o’clock.

Margaret Halsey (1910–1997) American writer
The Folks at Home, “The Five O’Clock Shadow over the United States” (1952)
(Source)

Commager, Henry Steele -- Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 1, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

Dave — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 20:54:58 +0000

What is the new loyalty? It is, above all, conformity. It is the uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of America as it is — the political institutions, the social relationships, the economic practices. It rejects inquiry into the race question or socialized medicine, or public housing, or into the wisdom or validity of our foreign policy. It regards as particularly heinous any challenge to what is called “the system of private enterprise,” identifying that system with Americanism. It abandons evolution, repudiates the once popular concept of progress, and regards America as a finished product, perfect and complete.

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 1, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168
(Source)

Reprinted in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954).

Snyder, Timothy -- Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, “Conclusion: Our World” (2015)

Dave — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 14:24:46 +0000

The ideal capitalism envisioned by advocates of the free market depends upon social virtues and wise policies that it does not itself generate.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, “Conclusion: Our World” (2015)
(Source)

Wylie, Philip Gordon -- Generation of Vipers (1942)

Dave — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 15:52:09 +0000

Few men, indeed, are so mad that they do not know when they are doing wrong. But so avid is their pursuit of goods that wrongdoing has become an element of all they do. To protest that fact is idle. Our politics, our business — little and big, our professions, our labor, are smitten in every facet with a corruption occasioned by reckless determination to make not just a reasonable profit but all the profit that can be wrung from every enterprise. Our commonest man, emulating his superiors, forges ahead with a brick on the safety valve of his conscience. Think over your morning paper in that light.

Philip Wylie (1902–1971) American author
Generation of Vipers (1942)
(Source)

Lahr, John -- “Lives in Limbo,” The New Yorker (26 Mar 2012)

Dave — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:21:13 +0000

Envy is the gasoline on which American capitalism runs.

John Lahr (b. 1941) British-based American theater critic, author
“Lives in Limbo,” The New Yorker (26 Mar 2012)
(Source)

Steinbeck, John -- Essay (1960-06-01), “A Primer on the Thirties,” Esquire

Dave — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:03:56 +0000

Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: “After the revolution even we will have more, won’t we, dear?” Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picnickers on her property.

I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew — at least they claimed to be Communists — couldn’t have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves.

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
Essay (1960-06-01), “A Primer on the Thirties,” Esquire
(Source)

Collected in Esquire: The Best of Forty Years (1973).

A portion of this was paraphrased in Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress, ch. 5 "The Rebellion of the Tools" (2004):

John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

That paraphrase has, in turn, been frequently given as a direct quotation of Steinbeck.

Galbraith, John Kenneth -- “The Predator State,” Mother Jones (May/Jun 2006)

Dave — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 21:21:07 +0000

In a predatory economy, the rules imagined by the law and economics crowd don’t apply. There’s no market discipline. Predators compete not by following the rules but by breaking them. They take the business-school view of law: Rules are not designed to guide behavior but laid down to define the limits of unpunished conduct. Once one gets close to the line, stepping over it is easy. A predatory economy is criminogenic: It fosters and rewards criminal behavior.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“The Predator State,” Mother Jones (May/Jun 2006)
(Source)

Hofstadter, Richard -- “Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited — 1965,” sec. 3 (1965)

Dave — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 17:33:16 +0000

One strain in Protestant thinking has always looked to economic life not just for its efficacy in producing goods and services but as a vast apparatus of moral discipline, of rewards for virtue and industry and punishments for vice and indolence.

Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) American historian and intellectual
“Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited — 1965,” sec. 3 (1965)
(Source)

Sinclair, Upton -- The Jungle, ch. 28 (1906)

Dave — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:05:49 +0000

There is no wilderness where I can hide from these things, there is no haven where I can escape them; though I travel to the ends of the earth, I find the same accursed system — I find that all the fair and noble impulses of humanity, the dreams of poets and the agonies of martyrs, are shackled and bound in the service of organized and predatory Greed! And therefore I cannot rest, I cannot be silent; therefore I cast aside comfort and happiness, health and good repute — and go out into the world and cry out the pain of my spirit!

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
The Jungle, ch. 28 (1906)
(Source)

Bell, Daniel -- The End of Ideology, Introduction (1961 ed.)

Dave — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 20:27:54 +0000

One is reminded of the dialectical definition, by the wry Polish intellectual, of capitalism and communism. Capitalism, it is said, is a system wherein man exploits man. And communism — is vice versa.

Daniel Bell (1919–2011) American sociologist, writer, editor, academic
The End of Ideology, Introduction (1961 ed.)
(Source)

Usually quoted with just the last two sentences, and misattributed directly to Bell.

Goldberg, Natalie -- Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life, ch. 42 (1990)

Dave — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 19:06:59 +0000

Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.

Natalie Goldberg (b. 1948) American author, teacher, speaker
Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life, ch. 42 (1990)
(Source)

Sinclair, Upton -- The EPIC Plan for California (1934)

Dave — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:28:34 +0000

Fascism is capitalism plus murder.

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
The EPIC Plan for California (1934)
(Source)

Often cited to his novel Presidential Agent (1944), he used the phrase often, starting at least with his run for governor of California.

Keynes, John Maynard -- “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” Nation and Athenaeum (1930-10-11)

Dave — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 22:10:01 +0000

When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its true value. The love of money as a possession — as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyment and realities of life — will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English economist
“Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” Nation and Athenaeum (1930-10-11)
(Source)

Originally a society talk in 1920, expanded to a lecture given in Madrid (1930-06). Reprinted in Essays in Persuasion, Part 5, ch. 2 (1931).

Sinclair, Upton -- Letter to John Reed (22 Oct 1918)

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 15:35:12 +0000

American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same in France; but in all these three countries the dominating fact is that whenever the people get ready to change the government, they can change it.

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
Letter to John Reed (22 Oct 1918)
(Source)

Faulkner, William -- Speech to the UNESCO Commission, New York (1959)

Dave — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 22:29:54 +0000

Mr. Khrushchev says that Communism, the police state, will bury the free ones. He is a smart gentleman, he knows that this is nonsense since freedom, man’s dim concept of and belief in the human spirit is the cause of all his troubles in his own country. But if he means that Communism will bury capitalism, he is correct. That funeral will occur about ten minutes after the police bury gambling. Because simple man, the human race, will bury both of them. That will be when we have expended the last grain, dram, and iota of our natural resources. But man himself will not be in that grave. The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American novelist
Speech to the UNESCO Commission, New York (1959)

Quoted in The New York Times (3 Oct 1959)

De Botton, Alain -- The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 9 “Entrepreneurship” (2009)

Dave — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 04:20:54 +0000

In reality, the likelihood of reaching the pinnacle of capitalist society today is only marginally better than were the chances of being accepted into the French nobility four centuries ago, though at least an aristocratic age was franker, and therefore kinder, about the odds. It did not relentlessly play up the possibilities open to all, … and so, in turn, did not cruelly equate an ordinary life with a failed one.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 9 “Entrepreneurship” (2009)
(Source)

King, Martin Luther -- Speech, AFL-CIO Convention, Miami (11 Dec 1961)

Dave — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:43:05 +0000

Less than a century ago, the laborer had no rights, little or no respect, and led a life which was socially submerged and barren. He was hired and fired by economic despots whose power over him decreed his life or death. […] American industry organized misery into sweatshops and proclaimed the right of capital to act without restraints and without conscience. […] The inspiring answer to this intolerable and dehumanizing existence was economic organization through trade unions. The worker became determined not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in his employer. He constructed the means by which fairer sharing of the fruits of his toil had to be given to him or the wheels of industry, which he alone turned, would halt and wealth for no one would be available.

This revolution within industry was fought bitterly by those who blindly believed their right to uncontrolled profits was a law of the universe, and that without the maintenance of the old order, catastrophe faced the nation. But history is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it by raising the living standards of millions. Labor miraculously created a market for industry, and lifted the whole nation to undreamed-of levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech, AFL-CIO Convention, Miami (11 Dec 1961)
(Source)

Marx, Karl -- The Communist Manifesto (1848) [with Friedrich Engels]

Dave — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 17:20:43 +0000

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist
The Communist Manifesto (1848) [with Friedrich Engels]

Keynes, John Maynard -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:35:13 +0000

[Capitalism is] the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English economist
(Attributed)

Attributed by Sir George Schuster, Christianity and Human Relations in Industry (1951). Frequently quoted, but no direct citation found.

A common variant, also not found in Keynes' work (and also attributed, without citation, to John Kenneth Galbraith):

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

E. A. G. Robinson was a close colleague of Galbraith, and in his book Monopoly (1941), he wrote:

The great merit of the capitalist system, it has been said, is that it succeeds in using the nastiest motives of nasty people for the ultimate benefit of society.

Another variant:

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.

More discussion and research into this quote:

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1841-02-12)

Dave — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:12:14 +0000

In the Feejee islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat their own wives and children. We only devour widows’ houses, & great merchants outwit & absorb the substance of small ones and every man feeds on his neighbor’s labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1841-02-12)
(Source)

Keynes, John Maynard -- “The End of Laissez-faire,” sec. 5 (1926)

Dave — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:54:20 +0000

For my part I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable.

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English economist
“The End of Laissez-faire,” sec. 5 (1926)
(Source)

Tawney, R. H. -- The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)

Dave — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:48:55 +0000

By fixing men’s minds, not upon the discharge of social obligations, which restricts their energy, because it defines the goal to which it should be directed, but upon the exercise of the right to pursue their own self-interest, it offers unlimited scope for the acquisition of riches, and therefore gives free play to one of the most powerful of human instincts. To the strong it promises unfettered freedom for the exercise of their strength; to the weak the hope that they too one day may be strong. Before the eyes of both it suspends a golden prize, which not all can attain, but for which each may strive, the enchanting vision of infinite expansion. It assures men that there are no ends other than their ends, no law other than their desires, no limit other than that which they think advisable. Thus it makes the individual the center of his own universe, and dissolves moral principles into a choice of expediences.

R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)
(Source)

Tawney, R. H. -- The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)

Dave — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 19:50:24 +0000

Revolutions, as a long and bitter experience reveals, are apt to take their colour from the régime which they overthrow. Is it any wonder that the creed which affirms the absolute rights of property should sometimes be met with a counter-affirmation of the absolute rights of labour, less anti-social, indeed, and inhuman, but almost as dogmatic, almost as intolerant and thoughtless as itself.

R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- (Spurious)

Dave — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:35:14 +0000

When the rich rob the poor it’s called business. When the poor fight back it’s called violence.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Spurious)

Frequently, but incorrectly attributed to Twain, no earlier than 2015. It appears to have been an anonymous phrase coined in the Occupy Movement in 2011. See here for more information.

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Fifth Message to Congress (5 Dec 1905)

Dave — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:43:28 +0000

In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a straight-dealing man who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and industry, benefits himself must also benefit others. Normally the man of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor of other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they could produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the benefit, which comes also to the public at large. The superficial fact that the sharing may be unequal must never blind us to the underlying fact that there is this sharing, and that the benefit comes in some degree to each man involved.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Fifth Message to Congress (5 Dec 1905)

O'Rourke, P. J. -- Eat the Rich, ch. 10 (1998)

Dave — Wed, 04 May 2016 14:01:47 +0000

Omnipresent amid all the frenzy of Shanghai is that famous portrait, that modern icon. The faintly smiling, bland, yet somehow threatening visage appears in brilliant red hues on placards and posters, and is painted huge on the sides of buildings. Some call him a genius. Others blame him for the deaths of millions. There are those who say his military reputation is inflated, yet he conquered the mainland in short order. Yes, it’s Colonel Sanders.

P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor
Eat the Rich, ch. 10 (1998)

Carnegie, Andrew -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:08:41 +0000

Capitalism is about turning luxuries into necessities.

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
(Attributed)

Sarnoff, David -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:14:53 +0000

Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.

David Sarnoff (1881–1971) Belarusian-American businessman and broadcasting executive
(Attributed)

Steinbeck, John -- The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 25 (1939)

Dave — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:29:57 +0000

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate — died of malnutrition — because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

In the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 25 (1939)

Lewis, Sinclair -- It Can’t Happen Here, ch. 36 (1935)

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 14:26:37 +0000

He was afraid that the world struggle today was not of Communism against Fascism, but of tolerance against the bigotry that was preached equally by Communism and Fascism. But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word “Fascism” and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty. For they were thieves not only of wages but of honor. To their purpose they could quote not only Scripture but Jefferson.

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, playwright
It Can’t Happen Here, ch. 36 (1935)
(Source)

Cuomo, Mario -- Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:21:37 +0000

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need. We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn’t distort or promise to do things that we know we can’t do. We believe in a government strong enough to use words like “love” and “compassion” and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities. We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.

Mario Cuomo (1932–2015) American politician
Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Tomorrow Is Now (1963)

Dave — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 00:38:33 +0000

A respect for the rights of other people to determine their forms of government and their economy will not weaken our democracy. It will inevitably strengthen it. One of the first things we must get rid of is the idea that democracy is tantamount to capitalism.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Tomorrow Is Now (1963)

Brandeis, Louis -- Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933) [dissent]

Dave — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 12:55:42 +0000

The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in corporate form were inherent in the citizen; and has led them to accept the evils attendant upon the free and unrestricted use of the corporate mechanism as if these evils were the inescapable price of civilized life, and, hence to be borne with resignation.

Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American lawyer, jurist, activist; US Supreme Court Justice (1916–39)
Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933) [dissent]

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 203 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:06:49 +0000

Business is a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life; this will enable them truly to serve the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 203 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:40:55 +0000

The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 53 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:11:24 +0000

Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 53 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:53:39 +0000

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 57 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 22:20:33 +0000

Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics — a non-ideological ethics — would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.”

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 57 (24 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Quoting St. John Chrysostom, De Lazaro Concio, II, 6

Francis I (Pope) -- In “Pope Francis: I’m Not a Marxist,” TIME (15 Dec 2013)

Dave — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:48:31 +0000

The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger: nothing ever comes out for the poor.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
In “Pope Francis: I’m Not a Marxist,” TIME (15 Dec 2013)
(Source)

On the "trickle-down" theory.

Tocqueville, Alexis de -- Democracy in America, Vol. 1, pt. 1, ch. 3 (1835) [tr. Goldhammer]

Dave — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 20:56:27 +0000

Indeed, I know of no country where the love of money occupies as great a place in the hearts of men, or where people are more deeply contemptuous of the theory of permanent equality of wealth.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, Vol. 1, pt. 1, ch. 3 (1835) [tr. Goldhammer]

Lloyd, Henry Demerest -- Man, the Social Creator, ch. 5 (1906)

Dave — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 22:43:06 +0000

The practical work of today is to abolish the cannibals of competition, warriors of supply and demand, tyrants of monopoly, monsters of the market, devourers of men, women and children, buyers and sellers of life.

Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847–1903) American political activist and journalist
Man, the Social Creator, ch. 5 (1906)
(Source)

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)

Dave — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:32:14 +0000

There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas

Dave — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:25:35 +0000

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done. We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas

Dave — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:20:14 +0000

I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare. Normally, and in the long run, the ends are the same; but whenever the alternative must be faced, I am for men and not for property, as you were in the Civil War. I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas

Dave — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:13:02 +0000

Also, friends, in the interest of the working man himself we need to set our faces like flint against mob-violence just as against corporate greed; against violence and injustice and lawlessness by wage-workers just as much as against lawless cunning and greed and selfish arrogance of employers. If I could ask but one thing of my fellow countrymen, my request would be that, whenever they go in for reform, they remember the two sides, and that they always exact justice from one side as much as from the other. I have small use for the public servant who can always see and denounce the corruption of the capitalist, but who cannot persuade himself, especially before elections, to say a word about lawless mob-violence. And I have equally small use for the man, be he a judge on the bench, or editor of a great paper, or wealthy and influential private citizen, who can see clearly enough and denounce the lawlessness of mob-violence, but whose eyes are closed so that he is blind when the question is one of corruption in business on a gigantic scale.

King, Martin Luther -- Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Dave — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:28:14 +0000

We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged small-hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
(Source)

King, Martin Luther -- Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:44:38 +0000

Truth is found neither in traditional capitalism nor in classical communism. Each represents a partial truth. Capitalism fails to see the truth in collectivism. Communism fails to see the truth in individualism. Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is personal.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
(Source)

Galbraith, John Kenneth -- The Affluent Society, ch. 25, sec. 3 (1958)

Dave — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:23:24 +0000

Private enterprise did not get us atomic energy.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Affluent Society, ch. 25, sec. 3 (1958)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris

Dave — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:46:23 +0000

It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Berry, Wendell -- Speech (1994-09-29), “Conserving Forest Communities,” Kentucky Forest Summit, Louisville

Dave — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:44:10 +0000

That this economic system persists and grows larger and stronger in spite of its evident failure has nothing to do with rationality or, for that matter, with evidence. It persists because, embodied now in multinational corporations, it has discovered a terrifying truth: If you can control a people’s economy, you don’t need to worry about its politics; its politics have become irrelevant. If you control people’s choices as to whether or not they will work, and where they will work, and what they will do, and how well they will do it, and what they will eat and wear, and the genetic makeup of their crops and animals, and what they will do for amusement, then why should you worry about freedom of speech? In a totalitarian economy, any “political liberties” that the people might retain would simply cease to matter. If, as is often the case already, nobody can be elected who is not wealthy, and if nobody can be wealthy without dependence on the corporate economy, then what is your vote worth? The citizen thus becomes an economic subject.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Speech (1994-09-29), “Conserving Forest Communities,” Kentucky Forest Summit, Louisville
(Source)

Collected in Another Turn of the Crank (1995).

Lovecraft, H. P. -- Letter (1936-08) to Catherine L. Moore

Dave — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:28:09 +0000

As for the Republicans — how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their yes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously ) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license, or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical “American heritage” — economic oversight, price-fixing, “government in business”, etc. recur often in American colonial history) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
Letter (1936-08) to Catherine L. Moore
(Source)

Mencken, H. L. -- Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks, #397 (1956)

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:54:20 +0000

The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly, and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretences.

H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks, #397 (1956)

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Speech (1937-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.

Dave — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:57:00 +0000

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1937-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.
(Source)

(Source (Audio)). Regarding the Stock Market Crash and ensuing Great Depression.

Churchill, Winston -- Speech, House of Commons (22 Oct 1945)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (22 Oct 1945)
(Source)