Home / Quotes / Quote by Hilaire Belloc

Quote by Hilaire Belloc

“Capitalism had arisen through the misuse and exaggeration of certain rights, notably the right of property - the basis of economic freedom - and the right of contract, which is one of the main functions of economic freedom. Therefore, even under Capitalism, so long as the old principles were remembered it was possible to recall the principles whereby Society had once been sane and well ordered.”

Quote by Hilaire Belloc

Author

Hilaire Belloc was an English writer, poet, and historian, born on July 27, 1870, and died on July 16, 1953. He is recognized for his contributions to poetry, fiction, and political commentary. more

You May Also Like

“... But as a Godless greed pursued its career from excess to excess, it provoked a sort of twin hostile brother, equally Godless, born in the same atmosphere of utter disregard for the foundational virtues of humility and charity. This hostile twin brother of Capitalism was destined to be called Communism, and is today setting out to murder its elder.”

“Communism worked honestly by officials devoid of human frailties and devoted to nothing but the good of its slaves, would have certain manifest material advantages as compared with a proletarian wage-system where millions live in semi-starvation, and many millions more in permanent dread thereof. But even if it were administered thus Communism would only produce its benefits through imposing slavery.”

“Consider in what way the industrial system developed upon capitalist lines. Why were a few rich men put with such ease into possession of the new methods? Why was it normal and natural in their eyes and in that of contemporary society that those who produced the new wealth with the new machinery should be proletarian and dispossessed?”

Men Way Should Eye Politics Natural Lines Wealth Economy Rich Normal Method Possession Contemporary Ease Liberalism Capitalist Machinery Rich Man Contemporary Society

Author:Hilaire Belloc

“Political freedom without economic freedom is almost worthless, and it is because the modern proletariat has the one kind of freedom without the other that its rebellion is now threatening the very structure of the modern world.”

World Kind Wisdom Political Politics Economy Economic Modern Structure Liberalism Rebellion Threatening Worthless Modern World Proletariat Economic Freedom Political Freedom Usury

Book:The Crisis Of Civilization

Source: The Crisis Of Civilization

“Economic freedom is in our eyes a good. It is among the highest of temporal goods because it is necessary to the highest life of society through the dignity of man and through the multiplicity of his action, in which multiplicity is life. Through well-divided property alone can the units of society react upon the State. Through it alone can a public opinion flourish. Only where the bulk of the cells are healthy can the whole organism thrive.”

Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property

“It is therefore our business to restore economic freedom through the restoration of the only institution under which it flourishes, which institution is Property. The problem before us is, how to restore Property so that it shall be, as it was not so long ago, a general institution.”

Long Problem Politics Economy Economic Institutions Property Liberalism Long Ago Restoration Economic Freedom

Book:An Essay on the Restoration of Property

Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property

“Even if the wealth and power be well distributed throughout a community, its members will not be happy unless they are inwardly so, and obviously where the distribution is bad, where the few have a vast superfluity and the many are consumed by anxiety or want, or where a few controllers can exercise their will over the many, society has failed, even though its total wealth and power be increased.”

Ifs Want Wells Wisdom Politics Community Wealth Economy Exercise Members Anxiety Liberalism Distribution Consumed Controllers

Author:Hilaire Belloc

“Had there been any existent vital and energetic institution left in Society after the Reformation for the use of small property in coordinated form-that is, in combination, so that the average man's holding could be put to useful purpose in company with the holdings of a great number of other men of his own sort, the new evils would not have arisen.”

Men Use Wisdom Form Purpose Evil Politics Left Numbers Company Economy Institutions Property Average Combination Liberalism Reformation Energetic Average Man

Book:The Crisis Of Civilization

Source: The Crisis Of Civilization

“In the form of security and sufficiency for the men who labor to the profit of others, and in the form of registering and controlling them in the form of an organized public supervision of their labor, slavery is already afoot. When slavery shall succeed it will succeed through the acquiescence of those who will be enslaved, for they will prefer sufficiency and security with enslavement, to freedom, responsibility, insecurity and the threat of insufficiency.”

Source: Essays of a Catholic

“In the same way the eminence attaching to the mere possession of great wealth disappoints us nine times out of ten, especially if the wealth has been accumulated rapidly. For great wealth is accumulated rapidly by cunning or chance, or a mixture of the two. Cunning has nothing to do with high qualities; it is rather a presumption against them; while chance has nothing to do with them either. Therefore it is that men are always complaining after meeting So-and-so, that he seemed to be astonishingly stupid, though he made a million in ten years and started as a pauper.”