Capitalist Quotes

• In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Liberty, Economics

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.17, Penguin

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• The capitalist engine is first and last an engine of mass production which unavoidably also means production for the masses. . . . It is the cheap cloth, the cheap cotton and rayon fabric, boots, motorcars and so on that are the typical achievements of capitalist production, and not as a rule improvements that would mean much to the rich man. Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within reach of factory girls.

  Joseph A. Schumpeter

  Girl, Queens, Mean

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• The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil.

  Albert Einstein

  Real, Evil, Political

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.156, Broadway Books

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  The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.

  Milton Friedman

  Liberty, Essentials, Libertarian

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

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• Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

  Frank Borman

  Money, Good Christian, Hell

  Quoted in Forbes, 8 June 1981

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• You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.

  Malcolm X

  Hope, Greed, Political

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• I am what you might call abstractly anti-capitalist. For instance, I am suspicious of the old leftists who focus all their hatred on the United States. What about Chinese neo-colonialism? Why are the left silent about that? When I say this, it annoys them, of course. Good!

  Slavoj Žižek

  Focus, Hatred, Annoyed

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• You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the government. And, with due respect to these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Respect, Money, Honesty

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• When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.

  Joseph Stalin

  Business, High Heels, Rope

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• On one level the sixties revolt was an impressive illustration of Lenin's remark that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.

  Ellen Willis

  Illustration, Rope, Levels

  Ellen Willis (2011). “Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music”, p.221, U of Minnesota Press

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• The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.

  Karl Marx

  Rope, Lasts, Poverty

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• Men who are scandalized at the lack of freedom in Russia do not ask themselves how real is liberty among the poor, the weak, and the ignorant in capitalist society.

  Emily Greene Balch

  Real, Men, Russia

  Emily Greene Balch (1972). “Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch”, New York : Twayne Publishers

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• Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

  Karl Marx

  Machines, May, Weapons

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (1976). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works”, International Pub

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• I want to kill the president because I no like the capitalists. I have the gun in my hand, I kill kings and presidents first and next all capitalists.

  Giuseppe Zangara

  Kings, Gun, Hands

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• The guiding principle is not to manufacture the goods everyone needs, rather to earn profits for a few capitalists.

  Walter Ulbricht

  Guiding Principles, Needs, Profit

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• "Freedom" in capitalist countries exists only for those who possess money and who consequently hold power.

  Nikita Khrushchev

  Wisdom, Country, Politics

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• Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.

  Joseph A. Schumpeter

  Mean, Progress, Economics

  Joseph A. Schumpeter (2003). “Ten Great Economists”, p.77, Routledge

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• Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Doe, Too Much

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• Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Business, Sacrifice, Men

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• Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Freedom, Tyrants, Slave Owners

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• Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated primarily by materialistic considerations, we now see the capitalist system being discredited and destroyed all over the world, even though this system has given men the greatest material comforts.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Comfort, World

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.108, Penguin

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• For it is an essential difference between capitalist and socialist production that under capitalism men provide for themselves, while under Socialism they are provided for.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Differences, Liberty

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist”, p.409, VM eBooks

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• What breaks capitalism, all that will ever break capitalism, is capitalists. The faster they run the more strain on their heart.

  Raymond Williams

  Running, Heart, Break

  Raymond Williams (1985). “Loyalties”, Hodder & Stoughton

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• Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.

  Eric Hoffer

  Country, Rebellious, Environment

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• While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.

  Karl Marx

  Philosophical, Mad, Gone

  Karl Marx (2007). “Capital: A Critique of Political Economy - The Process of Capitalist Production”, p.171, Cosimo, Inc.

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