William Graham Sumner Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

Duty Earth Effort Giving Human Nature Labor Liberty

History is only a tiresome repetition of one story.

William Graham Sumner

Stories, Repetition, Tiresome

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.27, Ludwig von Mises Institute

7 Copy quote
One thing must be granted to the rich: they are goodnatured.

William Graham Sumner

Rich, Granted, One Thing

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.39, Ludwig von Mises Institute

7 Copy quote
The criminal law needs to be improved to meet new forms of crime, but to denounce financial devices which are useful and legitimate because use is made of them for fraud, is ridiculous and unworthy of the age in which we live.

William Graham Sumner

Law, Hype, Age

17 Copy quote
Nine-tenths of our measures for preventing vice are really protective towards it, because they ward off the penalty.

William Graham Sumner

Vices, Nine, Penalties

William Graham Sumner (2007). “The Forgotten Man and Other Essays”, p.480, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
But we have inherited a vast number of social ills which never came from Nature. They are the complicated products of all the tinkering, muddling, and blundering of social doctors in the past.

William Graham Sumner

Past, Doctors, Numbers

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.102, Ludwig von Mises Institute

5 Copy quote
Moreover, there is an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence, around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and prosperous society.

William Graham Sumner

Labor, Capitalist, Dues

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.43, Ludwig von Mises Institute

7 Copy quote
We live in a war of two antagonistic ethical philosophies, the ethical policy taught in the books and schools, and the success policy.

William Graham Sumner

Philosophy, War, Book

William Graham Sumner (2007). “Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals”, p.33, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
It is remarkable that jealousy of individual property in land often goes along with very exaggerated doctrines of tribal or national property in land.

William Graham Sumner

Jealousy, Land, Doctrine

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.45, Ludwig von Mises Institute

7 Copy quote
We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could.

William Graham Sumner

Attention, Done, Wells

William Graham Sumner (1924). “Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner”

7 Copy quote
The State, it cannot be too often repeated, does nothing and can give nothing which it does not take from somebody. The Forgotten Man works and votes -generally he prays-but his chief business in life is to pay.

William Graham Sumner

Men, Giving, Political

4 Copy quote
For A to sit down and think, What shall I do? is commonplace; but to think what B ought to do is interesting, romantic, moral, self-flattering, and public-spirited all at once. It satisfies a great number of human weaknesses at once. To go on and plan what a whole class of people ought to do is to feel one's self a power on earth, to win a public position, to clothe one's self in dignity. Hence we have an unlimited supply of reformers, philanthropists, humanitarians, and would-be managers-in-general of society.

William Graham Sumner

Thinking, Winning, Class

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.97, Ludwig von Mises Institute

4 Copy quote
The invectives against capital in the hands of those who have it are double-faced, and when turned about are nothing but demands for capital in the hands of those who have it not, in order that they may do with it just what those who have it now are doing with it.

William Graham Sumner

Hands, Order, Justice

William Graham Sumner (1924). “Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner”

4 Copy quote
It is the greatest folly of which a man can be capable to sit down with a slate and pencil to plan out a new social world.

William Graham Sumner

Men, World, Social

William Graham Sumner (1924). “Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner”

4 Copy quote
Great captains of industry are as rare as great generals

William Graham Sumner

Captains, Organize, Captains Of Industry

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.46, Ludwig von Mises Institute

70 Copy quote
What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

William Graham Sumner

Real, Men, Generations

William Graham Sumner (2007). “Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals”, p.9, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
What we prepare for is what we shall get

William Graham Sumner

William Graham Sumner (1919). “War and Other Essays”

4 Copy quote
Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is the function of science and art. There is no process by which to reach an ideal. There are no tests by which to verify it. It is therefore impossible to frame a proposition about an ideal which can be proved or disproved. It follows that the use of ideals is to be strictly limited to proper cases, and that the attempt to use ideals in social discussion does not deserve serious consideration.

William Graham Sumner

Art, Effort, Doe

William Graham Sumner (2007). “Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals”, p.201, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves.

William Graham Sumner

Dream, Sunset, Men

William Graham Sumner (1924). “Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner”

8 Copy quote
It would be hard to find a single instance of a direct assault by positive effort upon poverty, vice, and misery which has not either failed or, if it has not failed directly and entirely, has not entailed other evils greater than the one which it removed.

William Graham Sumner

Evil, Effort, Vices

"Sociology" (1881)

6 Copy quote
Everywhere you go on the continent of Europe at this hour you see the conflict between militarism and industrialism. You see the expansion of industrial power pushed forward by the energy, hope, and thrift of men, and you see the development arrested, diverted, crippled, and defeated by measures which are dictated by military considerations.

William Graham Sumner

Military, Power, Men

William Graham Sumner (1919). “War and Other Essays”

7 Copy quote
It used to be believed that the parent had unlimited claims on the child and rights over him. In a truer view of the matter, we are coming to see that the rights are on the side of the child and the duties on the side of the parent.

William Graham Sumner

Children, Rights, Views

The Forgotten Man's Almanac 14 October (1919)

6 Copy quote
It is often said that the earth belongs to the race, as if raw land was a boon, or gift.

William Graham Sumner

Race, Land, Earth

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.44, Ludwig von Mises Institute

7 Copy quote
Society needs first of all to be free from meddlersthat is, to be let alone.

William Graham Sumner

Needs, Firsts

4 Copy quote
In the New Testament it is taught that willing and voluntary service to others is the highest duty and glory in human life. . . . The men of talent are constantly forced to serve the rest. They make the discoveries and inventions, order the battles, write the books, and produce the works of art. The benefit and enjoyment go to the whole. There are those who joyfully order their own lives so that they may serve the welfare of mankind.

William Graham Sumner

Life, Art, Book

William Graham Sumner, (2013). “Folkways - A Study Of The Sociological Importance Of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores And Morals”, p.251, Read Books Ltd

9 Copy quote
Then, again, the ability to organize and conduct industrial, commercial, or financial enterprises is rare; the great captains of industry are as rare as great generals.

William Graham Sumner

Captains, Financial, Ability

William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.46, Ludwig von Mises Institute

4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Herbert Spencer

Lester Frank Ward

Thorstein Veblen

Walter Rauschenbusch

William Graham Sumner

Follow

Born: October 30, 1840
Died: April 12, 1910
Occupation: Political scientist
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics