Henry George Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.”
-- Henry George -
“Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.”
-- Henry George -
“To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be.”
-- Henry George -
“Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism.”
-- Henry George -
“The great work of the present for every man, and every organization of men, who would improve social conditions, is the work of education the propagation of ideas. It is only as it aids this that anything else can avail. And in this work every one who can think may aid first by forming clear ideas himself, and then by endeavoring to arouse the thought of those with whom he comes in contact.”
-- Henry George -
“Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.”
-- Henry George -
“There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.”
-- Henry George -
“There are three ways by which an individual can get wealth-by work, by gift, and by theft. And, clearly, the reasons why the workers get so little is that the beggars and thieves get so much.”
-- Henry George -
“Liberty calls to us again. We must follow her further; we must trust her fully. Either we must wholly accept her or she will not stay. It is not enough that men should vote; it is not enough that they should be theoretically equal before the law. They must have liberty to avail themselves of the opportunities and means of life; they must stand on equal terms with reference to the bounty of Nature.”
-- Henry George -
“That which is unjust can really profit no one; that which is just can really harm no one.”
-- Henry George -
“It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.”
-- Henry George -
“The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world, and others no right.”
-- Henry George -
“No person, I think, ever saw a herd of buffalo, of which a few were fat and the great majority lean. No person ever saw a flock of birds, of which two or three were swimming in grease, and the others all skin and bone.”
-- Henry George -
“What protectionism teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.”
-- Henry George -
“Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.”
-- Henry George -
“Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.”
-- Henry George -
“The fundamental principle of human action, the law, that is to political economy what the law of gravitation is to physics is that men seek to gratify their desires with the least exertion”
-- Henry George -
“It is not from top to bottom that societies die; it is from bottom to top.”
-- Henry George -
“In all the new states of the Union, land monopolization has gone on at an alarming rate, but in none of them so fast as in California, and in none of them, perhaps, are the evil effects so manifest.”
-- Henry George -
“How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of it.”
-- Henry George -
“Poverty is the openmouthed relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. And it is hell enough.”
-- Henry George -
“It is too narrow an understanding of production which confines it merely to the making of things. Production includes not merely the making of things, but the bringing of them to the consumer. The merchant or storekeeper is thus as truly a producer as is the manufacturer, or farmer, and his stock or capital is as much devoted to production as is theirs.”
-- Henry George -
“Private ownership of land is the nether mill-stone. Material progress is the upper mill-stone. Between them, with an increasing pressure, the working classes are being ground.”
-- Henry George -
“The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth, but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock.”
-- Henry George -
“That amid our highest civilization men faint and die with want is not due to the niggardliness of nature, but to the injustice of man.”
-- Henry George -
“There can be to the ownership of anything no rightful title which is not derived from the title of the producer and does not rest upon the natural right of the man to himself.”
-- Henry George -
“one sex of voice in public matters, and that we could in no way so increase the attention , the intelligence and the devotion which may be brought to the solution of social problems as by enfranchising our women .”
-- Henry George -
“The man who gives me employment, which I must have or suffer, that man is my master, let me call him what I will.”
-- Henry George -
“So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.”
-- Henry George -
“I am firmly convinced, as I have already said, that to effect any great social improvement, it is sympathy rather than self-interest, the sense of duty rather than the desire for self-advancement, that must be appealed to. Envy is akin to admiration, and it is the admiration that the rich and powerful excite which secures the perpetuation of aristocracies.”
-- Henry George
