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Quote by William Batchelder Greene

“God -- if he really exist -- is good, alive, self-conscious, and governs all things according to his benevolent and holy providence; but the world shows no indications of such a benevolent and holy Providence. This earth appears to be a hell, or at best a planet condemned -- a sort of purgatory: it is filled with violence, tyranny and injustice, and yet God, if he exist, is absolute sovereign, and has willed that things should be as they are! -- Therefore there is no God.”

Author

William Batchelder Greene

William Batchelder Greene (April 4, 1819 - May 30, 1878) was an American social reformer and writer. His life and work spanned multiple fields, including labor reform, prison reform, anarchism, and socialism. Greene was an advocate for social justice and equality during his lifetime and had a profound impact on future generations. more

“Society established gold and silver as a circulating medium and as a legal tender in order that exchanges of commodities might be facilitated; but society blundered in so doing; for, by this very act, it gave to a certain class of men the power of saying what exchanges shall, and what exchanges shall not, be facilitated by means of this very circulating medium. The monopolizers of othe precious metals have an undue power over the community: they can say whether money shall, or shall not, be permitted to exercise its legitimate functions.”

Men Mean Might Certain Order Community Class Exercise Gold Function Mediums Silver Metals Commodity Gold And Silver Precious Metal

Book:Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic, and Financial Fragments

Source: Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic, and Financial Fragments

“Society is older than government. But every persisting society implies the existence of government and laws; for a society without government and laws is at once overturned by its madmen and scoundrels and lapses into barbarism.”

Government Law Existence Madmen Barbarism Scoundrels Lapses

Book:Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic, and Financial Fragments

Source: Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic, and Financial Fragments

“The Federal Government is rendered weak to do wrong, and powerful to do right: for, as soon as it begins to go wrong, it naturally begins to be divided against itself, and the three great wheels of its machinery exhaust their momentum, or wear each other out, in their friction against each other; while, as soon as it begins to go right, all the parts work harmoniously, and exhaust their full strength on the object of their action.”

Government Action Three Powerful Objects Weak Wheels Divided Federal Government Machinery Momentum Friction

Author:William Batchelder Greene

“Some men -- not all men -- see always before them an ideal, a mental picture if you will, of what they ought to be, and are not. Whoso seeks to follow this ideal revealed to the mental vision, whoso seeks to attain to conformity with it, will find it enlarge itself, and remove from him. He that follows it will improve his own moral character, but the ideal will remain always above him and before him, prompting him to new exertions.”

Ifs Men Character Moral Vision He Man Ought Ideals Remove Conformity Idealism Exertion Moral Character

Book:The blazing star; with an appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala, also a tract on the philosophy of H. Spencer, and one on New-England transcendentalism

Source: The blazing star; with an appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala, also a tract on the philosophy of H. Spencer, and one on New-England transcendentalism

“Man's life is entirely in his operations, which may all be classed under three heads: he thinks, he feels, and he acts -- these three modes of activity exhaust his powers.”

Thinking Men Life Feels May Life Is Three Activity Operations

Book:The Doctrine of Life: With Some of Its Theological Applications

Source: The Doctrine of Life: With Some of Its Theological Applications

“Marriage may be polygamic, monogamic, polyandric, complex according to the Oneida pattern, or other, and is true marriage (I do not say perfect marriage) so long as it promotes the happiness of the persons married, and the procreation, support, and education of children, and so long as it is founded on the joint free contract of the persons married, and remains under the sanction of the organic society of which those persons are members.”