WIST Quotations

Hertzberg, Hendrik -- “Ask the Author Live: Hendrik Hertzberg on George Soros,” The New Yorker (19 Nov 2010)

Dave — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 00:06:15 +0000

A “communist/socialist/progressive” is an oxymoron, like an “atheist/evangelical Christian/Muslim.”

Hendrik Hertzberg (b. 1943) American journalist, editor, speech writer, political commentator
“Ask the Author Live: Hendrik Hertzberg on George Soros,” The New Yorker (19 Nov 2010)
(Source)

Broun, Heywood -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 14:49:44 +0000

Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan of “Soak the Rich.”

Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
(Attributed)

Nader, Ralph -- “Public Citizen Number One,” by Debra Saunders, San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (13 Oct 1996)

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 03:06:25 +0000

When people ask, “Why should the rich pay a larger percent of their income than middle-income people?” — my answer is not an answer most people get: It’s because their power developed from laws that enriched them.

Ralph Nader (b. 1934) American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist
“Public Citizen Number One,” by Debra Saunders, San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (13 Oct 1996)

Ivins, Molly -- The Progressive (Mar 1986)

Dave — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 20:20:41 +0000

Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what’s more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Mar 1986)
(Source)

George, Henry -- Social Problems, ch. 1 (1883)

Dave — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:20:45 +0000

At the bottom of every social problem we will find a social wrong.

Henry George (1839-1897) American economist
Social Problems, ch. 1 (1883)

Kushner, Tony -- Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:39:00 +0000

Listen, here’s the thing about politics: It’s not an expression of your moral purity and your ethics and your probity and your fond dreams of some utopian future. Progressive people constantly fail to get this.

Tony Kushner (b. 1956) American playwright and screenwriter
Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “The Conservative,” lecture, Boston (1841-12-09)

Dave — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:32:27 +0000

Conservatism stands on man’s incontestable limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitiude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Conservative,” lecture, Boston (1841-12-09)

Twain, Mark -- Mark Twain’s Notebook, 1898 [ed. Paine (1935)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook, 1898 [ed. Paine (1935)]