Upton Sinclair Quotes

Quotes about:

• It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

  Upton Sinclair

  Wisdom, Men, People

  Quoted in Evan Esar, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949)

  196 Copy quote

• It is foolish to be convinced without evidence, but it is equally foolish to refuse to be convinced by real evidence.

  Upton Sinclair

  Real, Foolish, Evidence

  110 Copy quote

• You don't have to be satisfied with America as you find it. You can change it. I didn't like the way I found America some sixty years ago, and I've been trying to change it ever since.

  Upton Sinclair

  America, Years, Trying

  92 Copy quote

• I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.

  Upton Sinclair

  Book, Heart, Beer

  Cosmopolitan, Oct. 1906

  73 Copy quote

• One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.

  Upton Sinclair

  Political, Democracy, Corruption

  Upton Sinclair (2016). “The Jungle”, p.387, First Avenue Editions

  77 Copy quote

• I don't know whether anyone will care to examine my heart, but if they do, they will find two words there- 'social justice.' For that is what I have believed in and fought for.

  Upton Sinclair

  Heart, Two, Justice

  Upton Sinclair (2016). “The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair”, p.479, Pickle Partners Publishing

  59 Copy quote

• Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters.

  Upton Sinclair

  Two, People, Political

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.236, Open Road Media

  91 Copy quote

• The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC [End Poverty in California]. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.

  Upton Sinclair

  Running, Lying, Epic

  Upton Sinclair “The Jungle”, Lulu.com

  72 Copy quote

• You can't make somebody understand something if their salary depends upon them not understanding it.

  Upton Sinclair

  Understanding, Salary, Depends

  49 Copy quote

• The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery.

  Upton Sinclair

  Credit, Slavery, Modern

  Upton Sinclair (1926). “Letters to Judd, an American Workingman”

  67 Copy quote

• Fascism is capitalism plus murder.

  Upton Sinclair

  Tyrants, Murder, Plus

  Upton Sinclair (2016). “Presidential Agent”, p.373, Open Road Media

  78 Copy quote

• When the masters of industry pay such sums for a newspaper, they buy not merely the building and the presses and the name; they buy what they call the "good-will"- that is, they buy you. And they proceed to change your whole psychology - everything that you believe about life. You might object to it, if you knew; but they do their work so subtly that you never guess what is happening to you!

  Upton Sinclair

  Believe, Media, Names

  Upton Sinclair (1928). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.246, University of Illinois Press

  68 Copy quote

• The supreme crime of the church to-day is that everywhere and in all its operations and influences it is on the side of sloth of mind; that it banishes brains, it sanctifies stupidity, it canonizes incompetence.

  Upton Sinclair

  Stupidity, Sloth, Brain

  Upton Sinclair (2005). “The Profits of Religion”, p.55, Cosimo, Inc.

  56 Copy quote

• American journalism is a class institution, serving the rich and spurning the poor.

  Upton Sinclair

  Media, Class, Journalism

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.150, Open Road Media

  11 Copy quote

• Can you blame me if I am pursued by the thought of how much we could do to remedy social evils, if only we had an honest and disinterested press?

  Upton Sinclair

  Media, Evil, Honest

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.101, Open Road Media

  14 Copy quote

• There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.

  Upton Sinclair

  Men, Desire, Bars

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Jungle: A Novel”, p.303, Open Road Media

  27 Copy quote

• But the devil is a subtle worm; he does not give up at one defeat, for he knows human nature, and the strength of the forces which battle for him.

  Upton Sinclair

  Giving Up, Battle, Devil

  Upton Sinclair (2014). “The Profits of Religion”, p.262, Trajectory Inc

  6 Copy quote

• The first thing brought forth by the study of any religion, ancient or modern, is that it is based upon Fear, born of it, fed by it — and that it cultivates the source from which its nourishment is derived.

  Upton Sinclair

  Firsts, Study, Ancient

  Upton Sinclair (2005). “The Profits of Religion”, p.24, Cosimo, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

• They use everything about the hog except the squeal.

  Upton Sinclair

  Use, Squealing, Hog

  Upton Sinclair (2016). “The Jungle”, p.35, Xist Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• Consider Christmas - could Satan in his most malignant mood have devised a worse combination of graft plus bunkum than the system whereby several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the Western world is made ill from overeating - all in the name of the lowly Jesus?

  Upton Sinclair

  Religious, Jesus, Children

  54 Copy quote

• Turn over the pages of history and read the damning record of the church's opposition to every advance in every field of science. . . .

  Upton Sinclair

  Religion, Church, Records

  Upton Sinclair (2005). “The Profits of Religion”, p.55, Cosimo, Inc.

  19 Copy quote

• Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself.

  Upton Sinclair

  Men, Strange, Beast

  Upton Sinclair (2014). “The Profits of Religion”, p.19, Trajectory Inc

  33 Copy quote

• We define journalism in America as the business and practice of presenting the news of the day in the interest of economic privilege.

  Upton Sinclair

  Media, Practice, America

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.236, Open Road Media

  13 Copy quote

• Pessimism is mental disease. It means illness in the person who voices it, and in the society which produces that person.

  Upton Sinclair

  Mean, Voice, Disease

  12 Copy quote

• Into this wild-beast tangle these men had been born without their consent, they had taken part in it because they could not help it; that they were in jail was no disgrace to them, for the game had never been fair, the dice were loaded. They were swindlers and thieves of pennies and dimes, and they had been trapped and put out of the way by the swindlers and thieves of millions of dollars.

  Upton Sinclair

  Taken, Men, Games

  Upton Sinclair (2016). “The Jungle”, p.163, Xist Publishing

  61 Copy quote

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