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Politics Quotes

“Here is an educational bombshell: Take from all of today's industrial nations all their industrial machinery and all their energy-distributing networks, and leave them all their ideologies, all their political leaders, and all their political organizations, and I can tell you that within six months, two billion people will die of starvation, having gone through great pain and deprivation along the way.”

“The effect of the corporation, under the prevailing policy of the free, go-as-you-please method of organization and management, has been to drive the bulk of our people, other than farmers, out of property ownership; and, if allowed to go on as present, it will keep them out... The paramount problem is not how to stop the growth of property, and the building up of wealth, but how to manage it so that every species of property, like a healthy growing tree will spread its roots deeply and widely in the soil of a popular proprietorship.”

“But if not Kelso, then something else, because a free people must own the nation they live in.”

People Ifs Wisdom Politics Nations Economy Liberalism

Book:Left at the post

Source: Left at the post

“The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. 'Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem.' Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.”

Source: Correspondence

“The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has had a great effect on the opinion here in Europe.”

People States Wisdom Seems Government America Political Politics Given Sides Opinion Economy Effects Europe Expected Contrary Liberalism Firmness Tumult

Book:Jefferson: Political Writings

Source: Jefferson: Political Writings

“All this plan does is make everybody a capitalist. I know that the New York Stock Exchange says there are 25 million shareholders in the United States, but let me tell you something: about 15 million of those people could save their dividends for 10 years and maybe buy a new suit. That's not what I call capitalism.”

“There's only one honest way to measure affluence; that's by comparing the capability of producing goods and services with the desire of people to enjoy them. It's a lousy, crooked trick to compare this society with China or some such place and then say we're affluent. It's a piece of intellectual crookery even to compare this economy with itself ten or twenty years ago. We should compare what we have with what we could have.”

“Work is a means; it is not an end. And for any tasks that can be performed or eliminated by a capital instrument, human labor is not the best means... Furthermore, we have science, engineering and management - the three disciplines - that really plan and control the production of goods and services, trying to eliminate labor. Who the hell is government to come along and try to create labor? The people who are producing wealth are trying to eliminate toil, while the politicians are trying to create it.”

“Money is not a part of the visible sector of the economy; people do not consume money. Money is not a physical factor of production, but rather a yardstick for measuring economic input, economic outtake and the relative values of the real goods and services of the economic world. Money provides a method of measuring obligations, rights, powers and privileges. It provides a means whereby certain individuals can accumulate claims against others, or against the economy as a whole, or against many economies.”

Source: Two-factor Theory: the Economics of Reality; how to Turn Eighty Million Workers Into Capitalists on Borrowed Money, and Other Proposals

“When incentive to acquire and obtain property is gone, people no longer make efforts to acquire any... Those who infringe upon property rights commit an injustice... If this occurs repeatedly, all incentives to cultural enterprise are destroyed and they cease utterly to make an effort. This leads to destruction and ruin of civilization.”

People Ifs Wisdom Politics Effort Economy Gone Rights Civilization Destruction Property Injustice Cease Commit Destroyed Ruins Liberalism Acquire Enterprise Incentives Property Rights

Author:Ibn Khaldun

“A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will "thingify" them and make them things. And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. What I'm saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, "America, you must be born again!"”

“The Spirit of Justice is the single most important seed Piers planted; if you don't live by its teaching, your chance of salvation is nil. Unless Conscience and the Cardinal Virtues form the food that people live on, just take my word for it, they're utterly lost - every single living soul among them!”

People Ifs Important Soul Wisdom Form Spirit Politics Lost Justice Chance Economy Virtue Teaching Conscience Salvation Seeds Liberalism Live By Cardinals Piers

Author:William Langland

“We have seen that this great labor question cannot be solved save by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.”

People Should Wisdom Law Politics Principles Economy Policy Labor Sacred Assuming Favors Liberalism Owners Ownership

Book:The Pope and the People: Select Letters and Addresses on Social Questions

Source: The Pope and the People: Select Letters and Addresses on Social Questions

“In Harlem, for instance, all of the stores are owned by white people, all of the buildings are owned by white people. The black people are just there - paying rent, buying the groceries; but they don't own the stores, clothing stores, food stores, any kind of stores; don't even own the homes that they live in. They are all owned by outsiders, and for these run-down apartment dwellings, the black man in Harlem pays more money than the man down in the rich Park Avenue section.”

“In proportion as the people are accustomed to manage their affairs by their own active intervention, instead of leaving them to the government, their desires will turn to repelling tyranny, rather than to tyrannizing: while in proportion as all ready initiative and direction resides in the government, and individuals habitually feel and act as under its perpetual tutelage, popular institutions develop in them not the desire of freedom, but an unmeasured appetite for place and power.”

“A people among whom there is no habit of spontaneous action for a collective interest - who look habitually to their government to command or prompt them in all matters of joint concern - who expect to have everything done for them, except what can be made an affair of mere habit and routine - have their faculties only half developed; their education is defective in one of its most important branches.”

Source: Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy : in Two Volumes

“Nine-tenths of the people are at present freeholders... The time is not distant when this country will abound with mechanics and manufacturers who will receive their bread from their employers. Will such men be the secure and faithful guardians of liberty? Give the votes to people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich who will be able to buy them.”

People Men Giving Country Wisdom Able Politics Liberty Economy Rich Vote Sells Property Nine Bread Secure Faithful Liberalism Mechanic Guardian Employers

Author:Gouverneur Morris

“We must adopt reforms which will expand the range of opportunities for all Americans. We can fulfill the American dream only when each person has a fair chance to fulfill his own dreams. This means equal voting rights, equal employment opportunity and new opportunities for expanded ownership, because in order to be secure in their human rights, people need access to property rights.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1970

“The people of America are a people of property; almost every man is a freeholder.”

People Men Wisdom America Politics Economy Property Every Man Liberalism

Author:Thomas Paine

“Bad as "independence" is, the main fault of the Federal Reserve System - an admirable system if conducted in the public interest - is that too much power and control rests in the hands of people whose private interests are directly affected by the Federal Reserves' actions.”

“The Open Market Committee, as presently established, is plainly not in the public interest. This committee must be operated by purely public servants, representatives of the people as a whole and not any single interest group. The Open Market Committee should be abolished, and its powers transferred to the Federal Reserve Board - the present public members of the committee, with reasonably short terms of office.”

“There are many reasons why the general public doesn't really understand our monetary system. In the first place, money is something that people tend to get emotional about. After all, money involves, and always has involved, something closely akin to faith-which probably explains why in many past societies the money system has been in the hands of a priesthood, the subject of magical rites, and the ceremonial services of the tribe's medicine man.”

“In a democracy the responsibility for the Government's economic policies, which so affect the economy, normally rests with the elected representative of the people: in our case, with the President and the Congress. If these two follow economic policies inimical to the general welfare, they are accountable to the people for their actions on election day. With Federal Reserve independence, however, a body of men exist who control one of the most powerful levers moving the economy and who are responsible to no one.”

“If the Federal Reserve pursues a policy which Congress or the President believes not to be in the public interest, there is nothing Congress can do to reverse the policy. Nor is there anything the people can do. Such bastions of unaccountable power are undemocratic. The Federal Reserve System must be reformed, so that it is answerable to the elected representatives of the people.”

People Ifs Believe Politics President Interest Can Do Economy Policy Congress Pursue Liberalism Representatives Reserves Reverse Federal Reserve Public Interest

Author:Wright Patman

“If the world is made to furnish each individual with the means of livelihood and the instruments for his growth and progress, each man has therefore the right to find in the world what is necessary for himself. The recent Council reminded us of this: "God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people. Thus, as all men follow justice and unite in charity, created goods should abound for them on a reasonable basis."”

People Ifs Men World Should Humans Mean Made Use Earth Politics Individual Growth Justice Human Beings Economy Progress Bases Instruments Charity Liberalism Reasonable Goods Council Livelihood

Author:Pope Paul VI

“This organic conception of society, the only vital conception, combines a noble humanism with the genuine Christian spirit, and it bears the inscription from Holy Writ which St. Thomas has explained: "The work of justice shall be peace"; a text applicable to the life of a people whether it be considered in itself or in its relations with other nations.”

People Christian Spirit Politics Nations Justice Economy Bears Holy Relation Humanism Noble Genuine Liberalism Conception Inscriptions St Thomas

Author:Pope Pius XI

“For there is no virtue, the honour and credit for which procures a man more odium from the elite than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people. For they only honour the valiant and admire the wise, while in addition they also love just men, and put entire trust and confidence in them.”

People Men Politics Justice Common Economy Virtue Wise Authority Credit Admire Liberalism Acquire Honour Elites Valiant

Author:Plutarch

“Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground.”

Source: Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's

“It's the nature of government, to build enduring institutions, structures that stay long after their purpose is over. If you pay people to help the poor, you have people who won't be paid if there aren't any poor, so they'll be sure to find some.”

People Ifs Long Helping Government Purpose Politics Poor Pay Economy Paid Institutions Structure Endure Liberalism Help The Poor

Author:Jerry Pournelle

“I've long believed one of the mainsprings of our own liberty has been the widespread ownership of property among our people and the expectation that anyone's child, even from the humblest of families, could grow up to own a business or corporation.”

People Children Long Has Beens Wisdom Politics Grows Liberty Economy Growing Up Expectations Property Corporations Liberalism Ownership Homestead Act

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“Our Founding Fathers well understood that concentrated power is the enemy of liberty and the rights of man. They knew that the American experiment in individual liberty, free enterprise and republican self-government could succeed only if power were widely distributed. And since in any society social and political power flow from economic power, they saw that wealth and property would have to be widely distributed among the people of the country. The truth of this insight is immediately apparent.”

“The people of Central America - and, in a broader sense, the entire developing world - need to know first-hand that freedom and opportunity are not just for the elite, but the birthright of every citizen; that property is not just something enjoyed by a few, but can be owned by any individual who works hard and makes correct decisions.”

People Knows World Needs Firsts Hard Hands America Opportunity Politics Individual Decision Economy Hard Work Citizens Property Enjoyed Developing Liberalism Elites Birthright Central America

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“Insofar as human beings flower on the ground of freedom, justice guards that ground. Insofar as human beings flower in the soil of community, justice tends that soil. Justice makes possible a social order that people can truly be said to share freely.”

People Humans Said Wisdom Order Politics Social Community Justice Human Beings Economy Share Flower Soil Liberalism Social Order

Author:Jeffrey H Reiman

“The last point for consideration is the supposed disposition of the people to interfere with the rights of property. So essential does it appear to me, to the cause of good government, that the rights of property should be held sacred, that I would agree to deprive those of the elective franchise against whom it could justly be alleged that they considered it their interest to invade them.”

People Should Doe Wisdom Government Lasts Politics Causes Interest Economy Rights Essentials Agree Sacred Property Liberalism Consideration Interfere Disposition

Book:The Works of David Ricardo ...

Source: The Works of David Ricardo ...

“The best lesson that any people can learn is that there is no patent cure-all which will make the body politic perfect, and that any man who is able glibly to answer every question as to how to deal with the evils of the body politic is at best a foolish visionary and at worst an evil-minded quack.”

People Men Body Able Evil Politics Answers Perfect Deals Economy Worst Lessons Foolish Cures Liberalism Visionaries Patents Quacks

Book:History as Literature and Other Essays

Source: History as Literature and Other Essays

“The very foundation of private property and free contracting wears away in a nation in which its most vital, most concrete, most meaningful types of private property and free contracting disappear from the moral horizon of the people.”

People Politics Nations Moral Economy Type Foundation Property Disappear Meaningful Liberalism Horizon Concrete Private Property Most Meaningful Contracting

Book:Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

Source: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

“It is perfectly clear that people, given no alternative, will choose tyranny over anarchy, because anarchy is the worst tyranny of all... The special nature of liberties is that they can be defended only as long as we still have them. So the very first signs of their erosion must be resisted, whether the issue be domestic surveillance by the Army, so-called preventive detention, or the freedom of corporate television, or that of a campus newspaper.”

“As long as the decent people refuse to believe that morality must manifest itself in every sphere of human activity, including the political, they will not meet the challenge of Marxism.”

People Believe Humans Long Wisdom Political Politics Challenges Economy Morality Activity Including Refuse Decent Liberalism Manifest Spheres Marxism Human Activity

Author:Fulton J. Sheen

“A democracy flirts with the danger of becoming a slave in direct ratio to the numbers of its citizens who work, but do not own / or who own, but do not work; or who distribute, as politicians do, but do not produce. The danger of the "slave state" disappears in ratio to the numbers of people who own property and admit its attendant responsibilities under God. They can call their souls their own because they own and administer something other than their souls. Thus they are free.”

People Soul States Wisdom Politics Numbers Responsibility Economy Democracy Danger Produce Becoming Citizens Politician Direct Property Slave Disappear Liberalism Flirting Ratios

Author:Fulton J. Sheen

“In the USA, where so many people compete for one and the same thing, where job opportunities, residential facilities, and food resources have to be spread over so many people, the question of justice becomes more imperative than ever before if communal and individual life is to be made possible and enjoyable.”

People Ifs Made Wisdom Jobs Life Is Opportunity Politics Individual Justice Economy Resources Spread Usa Liberalism Imperatives Enjoyable Facility Individual Life Job Opportunities

Author:Ndabaningi Sithole

“The U.S.A. economic policy and practice have been largely influenced by this thought that people shall own property in their own right and in order to be strong enough to control their own government.”

People Has Beens Enough Wisdom Government Order Politics Strong Practice Economy Economic Policy Property Liberalism Strong Enough Economic Policy

Author:Ndabaningi Sithole

“The real struggle between an American government and the people was one of power, which was settled when they designed their Constitution, which conceded the sovereignty of the people when it came to politics, and the sovereignty of the consumer when it came to economics.”

People Real Wisdom Government Politics Struggle Economy Economics Constitution Consumers Liberalism Sovereignty American Government Conceded

Author:Ndabaningi Sithole

“Let the people have property and they will have power - a power that will forever be exerted to prevent the restriction of the press, the abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgment of any other privilege.”

People Wisdom Politics Economy Forever Presses Property Privilege Trials Liberalism Restriction Jury Abolition Trial By Jury

Author:Noah Webster

“The liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Writ, even Magna Carta itself, although justly deemed the paladia of freedom, are all inferior considerations, when compared with the general distribution of real property among every class of people.”

People Real Wisdom Politics Liberty Class Economy Presses Property Trials Liberalism Consideration Inferiors Distribution Jury Corpus Trial By Jury Real Property Habeas Corpus Magna Carta

Author:Noah Webster

“What I saw in that country, I saw in that country and I saw people respect him and his family and that's what I mean about that.”

People Mean Country Politics Saws North Korea

Author:Dennis Rodman

“New information technologies-including email, the web, and computerized blast-faxes and phone calls-have fundamentally changed the landscape of political competition in modern democracies. They've done so in three ways: by dramatically boosting the access of individuals and special interests to politically potent information, by making it easier for such people to coordinate their activities and exert political power, and by greatly increasing the pace of events within our political systems.”

“Our democracy, our constitutional framework is really a kind of software for harnessing the creativity and political imagination for all of our people. The American democratic system was an early political version of Napster.”

People Kind Political Politics Imagination Creativity Democracy Internet Capitalism Democratic Versions Software Framework Napster

Author:Al Gore

“It is legitimate to have one's own point of view and political philosophy. But there are people who make anger, rather than a deeply held belief, the basis of their actions. They do not seem to mind harming society as a whole in the pursuit of their immediate objective. No society can survive if it yields to the demands of frenzy, whether of the few or the many.”

Source: Education, individual, and society: selected addresses

“It is very rare, indeed, for men to be wrong in their feelings concerning public misconduct; as rare to be right in their speculations upon the cause of it. I have constantly observed that the generality of people are fifty years, at least, behind in their politics.”

People Men Years Feelings Politics Causes Behinds Fifty Speculation Generalities Misconduct

Book:The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke ...: A vindication of natural society. An essay on the sublime and beautiful. Political miscellanies

Source: The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke ...: A vindication of natural society. An essay on the sublime and beautiful. Political miscellanies

“The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses.”

People Two States House Politics United United States Rich Congress Rich People

Author:John Green