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Quote by James Mill

“No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people sufficiently instructed, to be aware of that excellence. Every other pretended support, must ultimately tend to its subversion, by lessening its dependence upon these.”

Quote by James Mill

Author

James Mill was a British economist known for his contributions to classical political economy and liberalism. His work 'Principles of Political Economy' had a profound impact on later economists. more

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“If nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men; nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another.”

Ifs Men Mean Has Beens Desire Objects Source Authority Sufficient Abundance Injury Possessed Disputes

Book:The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

Source: The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

“Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists.”

Men Humans Persons Ends Use Hands Government Community Principles Human Nature Defeat One Man

Book:The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

Source: The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

“The [classical] liberal, of course, does not deny that there are some superior people -- he is not an egalitarian -- but he denies that anyone has authority to decide who these superior people are.”

People Doe Courses Authority Deny Superiors Individualism

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“Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time. And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality.”

Believe Long Doe Ideas Self Lasts Belief Given Quality Authority Argument Claims Fundamentals Bounds Superiors Range Liberalism Resorts Conservatism Power Of Ideas

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“There is perhaps no single factor contributing so much to people's frequent reluctance to let the market work as their inability to conceive how some necessary balance, between demand and supply, between exports and imports, or the like, will be brought about without deliberate control. The conservative feels safe and content only if he is assured that some higher wisdom watches and supervises change, only if he knows that some authority is charged with keeping the change "orderly.”

People Ifs Knows Feels Watches Balance Higher Safe Demand Authority Conservative Factors Inability Assured Deliberate Contributing Orderly Imports Reluctance

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“To combat depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection -- a procedure which can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end.”

Want Mean Ends Suffering Evil Economics Crisis Productions Credit Cures Deception Combat Expansion Severe Banking Procedures Very Mean Misdirection

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself.”

Politics Power Democracy Socialism Creeds

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“[The] impersonal process of the market ... can be neither just nor unjust, because the results are not intended or foreseen.”

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“The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.”