Liberalism Quotes - Page 17

• No one can be, at the same time, a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Catholic, Politics

  Pope Pius XI (1935). “Forty Years After: Reconstructing the Social Order”

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• Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ, God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extension of the kingdom of Christ, men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will either be prevented entirely or at least their bitterness be diminished.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Kings, Men

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• Man cannot be exempted from his divinely-imposed obligations toward civil society, and the representatives of authority have the right to coerce him when he refuses without reason to do his duty. Society, on the other hand, cannot defraud man of his God-granted right... Nor can society systematically void these rights by making their use impossible.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Men, Hands

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1980*). “Encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI on atheistic communism: official Vatican text”

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• The ultimate consequences of the individualist spirit in economic life are those which you yourselves, Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, see and deplore: Free competition has destroyed itself; economic dictatorship has supplanted the free market; unbridled ambition for power has likewise succeeded greed for gain; all economic life has become tragically hard, inexorable, and cruel.

  Pope Pius XI

  Children, Ambition, Greed

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1947). “On reconstructing the social order: (Quadragesimo anno)”

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• In the first place, it is obvious that not only is wealth concentrated in our times but an immense power and despotic economic dictatorship is consolidated in the hands of a few, who often are not owners but only the trustees and managing directors of invested funds which they administer according to their own arbitrary will and pleasure. This dictatorship is being most forcibly exercised by those who, since they hold the money and completely control it, control credit also and rule the lending of money.

  Pope Pius XI

  Hands, Credit, Politics

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• It will be impossible to put these principles into practice unless the non-owning workers through industry and thrift advance to the state of possessing some little property.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Practice, Politics

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1947). “On reconstructing the social order: (Quadragesimo anno)”

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• To each, therefore, must be given his own share of goods, and the distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is laboring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Justice, Evil

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1947). “On reconstructing the social order: (Quadragesimo anno)”

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• For they have always unanimously maintained that nature, rather the Creator Himself, has given man the right of private ownership not only that individuals may be able to provide for themselves and their families but also that the goods which the Creator destined for the entire family of mankind may through this institution truly serve this purpose.

  Pope Pius XI

  Men, Politics, Able

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1947). “On reconstructing the social order: (Quadragesimo anno)”

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• In the present state of human society, however, We deem it advisable that the wage-contract should, when possible, be modified somewhat by a contract of partnership, as is already being tried in various ways to the no small gain both of the wage-earners and of the employers. In this way wage-earners are made sharers in some sort in the ownership, or the management, or the profits.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Politics, Way

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• No vicarious charity can substitute for justice which is due as an obligation and is wrongfully denied.

  Pope Pius XI

  Wisdom, Justice, Politics

  Catholic Church. Pope (1922-1939 : Pius XI), Pope Pius XI (1947). “On reconstructing the social order: (Quadragesimo anno)”

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• 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.

  Pope Pius XI

  Christian, People, Justice

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• Therefore the dignity of the human person normally demands the right to the use of earthly goods as the natural foundation for a livelihood; and to that right corresponds the fundamental obligation to grant private property, as far as possible, to all.

  Pope Pius XI

  Foundation, Use, Fundamentals

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• 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.

  Ronald Reagan

  Wisdom, Children, Growing Up

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• Over hundred years ago Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. There was wide distribution of land and they didn't confiscate anyone's privately owned land... We need an industrial Homestead Act.

  Ronald Reagan

  Wisdom, Years, Land

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• We hold that the ownership of private property is the right and privilege of every American citizen and is one of the foundation stones upon which this nation and its free enterprise system has been built and has prospered. We feel that private property rights and human rights are inseparable and indivisible. Only in those nations that guarantee the right of ownership of private property as basic and sacred under their law is there any recognition of human rights.

  John Rarick

  Wisdom, Rights, Law

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• 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.

  Jerry Pournelle

  Government, Long, People

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• Rome was in the most dangerous inclination to change on account of the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished themselves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices, and sumptuous buildings, and the riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth.

  Plutarch

  Wisdom, Ambition, Mean

  Plutarch, John Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough (2005). “Greek and Roman Lives”, p.376, Courier Corporation

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• 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.

  Plutarch

  Men, Law, Land

  Plutarch (1861). “Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's”, p.513

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• Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.

  Plutarch

  Wisdom, Justice, Politics

  Plutarch (2015). “Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans: Top Biography”, p.748, 谷月社

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• Justice makes the life of such as are in prosperity, power and authority the life of a god, and injustice turns it to that of a beast.

  Plutarch

  Wisdom, Justice, Politics

  Plutarch (2000). “The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume I: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.629, Modern Library

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• They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men.

  Plutarch

  Men, Luxury, Politics

  Plutarch (2015). “Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans: Top Biography”, p.1104, 谷月社

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• 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.

  Plutarch

  Wise, Men, People

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• For the rich men without scruple drew the estate into their own hands, excluding the rightful heirs from their succession; and all the wealth being centred upon the few, the generality were poor and miserable. Honourable pursuits, for which there was no longer leisure, were neglected; the state was filled with sordid business, and with hatred and envy of the rich.

  Plutarch

  Men, Hands, Envy

  Plutarch (2000). “The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume II: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.450, Modern Library

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• Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce.

  Plutarch

  Wisdom, Men, Politics

  Plutarch (2015). “Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans: Top Biography”, p.504, 谷月社

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• Individual initiative alone and the mere free play of competition could never assure successful development. One must avoid the risk of increasing still more the wealth of the rich and the dominion of the strong, whilst leaving the poor in their misery and adding to the servitude of the oppressed.

  Pope Paul VI

  Wisdom, Strong, Successful

  Catholic Church. Pope (1963-1978 : Paul VI), Pope Paul VI (1980*). “On the development of peoples”

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