Philosophy Quotes - Page 21

• Let us first of all frugality in government-peace and freedom we will have as a bonus.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Government, Political, Bonus

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• Who then would not like to see these benefits flow upon the world from the law, as from an inexhaustible source? But is it possible? Whence does the State draw those resources that it is urged to dispense by way of benefits to individuals? Is it not from the individuals themselves? How, then, can these resources be increased by passing through the hands of a parasitic and voracious intermediary?

  Frederic Bastiat

  Law, Hands, Political

  "Justice and Fraternity". Journal des Économistes, June 15, 1848.

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• Fines are preferable to imprisonment and other types of punishment because they are more efficient. With a fine, the punishment to offenders is also revenue to the State.

  Gary Becker

  Punishment, Political, Economics

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• Scratch a pessimist and you will often find a defender of privilege.

  William Beveridge

  Political, Scratches, Privilege

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• [The taxing power of the state] divides the community into two great classes: one consisting of those who, in reality, pay the taxes and, of course, bear exclusively the burden of supporting the government; and the other, of those who are the recipients of their proceeds through disbursements,and who are, in fact, supported by the government; or, in fewer words, to divide it into tax-payers and tax-consumers. But the effect of this is to place them in antagonistic relations in reference to the fiscal action of the government and the entire course of policy therewith connected.

  John C. Calhoun

  Reality, Class, Two

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• The first of all commodities to be exchanged is labour, and the freedom of man consists only in the exercise of the right to determine for himself in what manner his labour shall be employed, and how he will dispose of its products.

  Henry Charles Carey

  Exercise, Men, Political

  Henry Charles Carey (1853). “The slave trade, domestic and foreign: why it exists, and how it may be extinguished”, p.364

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• The first issue to be settled is whether socialism has a right to exist. Are its allegations concerning the present system true? Is industry proceeding on a principle of fraud? I wish to test the power of recent economic theory to give an exact answer to this question.

  John Bates Clark

  Hype, Issues, Giving

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• What must never be lost sight of is that a public functionary, in his capacity as functionary, produces absolutely nothing; that, on the contrary, he exists only on the products of the industrious class; and that he can consume nothing that has not been taken from the producers.

  Charles Dunoyer

  Taken, Class, Sight

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• Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Well socialism is exactly the reverse.

  Len Deighton

  Men, Political, Socialism

  Len Deighton (1964). “Funeral in Berlin”, HarperCollins UK

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• The intellectual's hostility to the businessman presents no mystery, as the two have, by function, wholly different standards. While the businessman's motto is the customer is always right, the intellectual's task is to preserve his perceived standards against the weight of popular opinion.

  Bertrand de Jouvenel

  Two, Political, Intellectual

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• Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.

  Jacques Delors

  Political, Unions, Economics

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• It is therefore wish'd that all commerce were as free between all the nations of the world as it is between the several counties of England.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Political, Wish, World

  Benjamin Franklin (2007). “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: 1706-1757”, p.301, Regnery Publishing

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• Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.

  Henry George

  Economic Inequality, Political, Labor Day

  Henry George (1911). “The complete works of Henry George”

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• That which is unjust can really profit no one; that which is just can really harm no one.

  Henry George

  Political, Unjust, Economics

  Henry George (1973). “The Land Question: What it Involves, and how Alone it Can be Settled”, New York : AMS Press

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• The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.

  Henry George

  Imagination, Political, March

  Louis Freeland Post, Henry George (1899). “The Single Tax: An Explanation, with Colored Charts and Illustrated Notes of the Land, Labor, and Fiscal Reform Advocated by Henry George”

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• The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.

  Henry George

  Organization, Political, Unions

  Henry George (1911). “perplexed philosopher [Herbert Spencer”

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• Protectionism will do little to create jobs and if foreigners retaliate, we will surely lose jobs.

  Alan Greenspan

  Jobs, Political, Littles

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• Socialism has never and nowhere been at first a working-class movement. It is by no means an obvious remedy for the obvious evil which the interests of that class will necessarily demand. It is a construction of theorists.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Class, Evil

  "Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics". Book by Friedrich Hayek, The Intellectuals and Socialism (ch. 12), 1967.

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• Socialist thought owes its appeal to the young largely to its visionary character; the very courage to indulge in Utopian thought is in this respect a source of strength for socialism which traditional liberalism sadly lacks. Speculation about general principles provides an opportunity for the play of the imagination of those who are unencumbered by much knowledge of the facts of present-day life. Their ideas suffer from inherent contradictions, and any attempt to put them into practice must produce something utterly different from what they expect.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Character, Opportunity, Practice

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• It is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the intellectual that he judges new ideas not by their specific merits but by the readiness with which they fit into his general conceptions, into the picture of the world which he regards as modern or advanced.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Ideas, Judging, Political

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• Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for. The world is full of so- called economists who in turn are full of schemes for getting something for nothing. They tell us that the government can spend and spend without taxing at all; that it can continue to pile up debt without ever paying it off, because "we owe it to ourselves."

  Henry Hazlitt

  Government, Free Gifts, Political

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• There is no more certain way to deter employment than to harass and penalize employers.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Political, Employment, Way

  Henry Hazlitt (2010). “Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics”, p.222, Crown Business

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• It is often sadly remarked that the bad economists present their errors to the public better than the good economists present their truths. It is often complained that demagogues can be more plausible in putting forward economic nonsense from the platform than the honest men who try to show what is wrong with it.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Men, Errors, Political

  Henry Hazlitt (2010). “Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics”, p.14, Crown Business

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• On Positive Liberty: The business of the State is to use its organizing powers for the purpose of furnishing the necessary conditions which allow this people freely to unfold its creative faculties.

  Adolf Hitler

  People, Creative, Political

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• Unalienable rights are essential limitations to all governments.

  Francis Hutcheson

  Rights, Government, Political

  Francis Hutcheson (1753). “An inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue”, p.301

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