William Graham Sumner Quotes - Page 3

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• 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

• It generally troubles them [the reformers] not a whit that their remedy implies a complete reconstruction of society, or even a reconstitution of human nature.

  William Graham Sumner

  Human Nature, Trouble, Reconstruction

  4 Copy quote

• The Forgotten Man... works, he votes, generally he prays-but he always pays-yes, above all, he pays. He does not want an office; his name never gets into the newspaper except when he gets married or dies. He keeps production going on.... He does not frequent the grocery or talk politics at the tavern. Consequently, he is forgotten.... All the burdens fall on him, or on her, for it is time to remember that the Forgotten Man is not seldom a woman.

  William Graham Sumner

  Fall, Men, Names

  "The Forgotten Man" (1883) See Franklin Roosevelt 3

  4 Copy quote

• The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its 'debt' in the penitentiary or the poor house.

  William Graham Sumner

  Life, Men, House

  William Graham Sumner (1913). “Earth-hunger and other essays”

  7 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

• If America becomes militant, it will be because its people choose to become such; it will be because they think that war and warlikeness are desirable.

  William Graham Sumner

  Peace, War, Thinking

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

  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

• If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject.

  William Graham Sumner

  Peace, War, Men

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

  4 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• What we prepare for is what we shall get

  William Graham Sumner

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

  4 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

• 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

• Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work.

  William Graham Sumner

  Hygiene, Organization, Indulge In

  William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.40, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  97 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

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