Socialism Quotes - Page 39

• When the coercive power of government is used to equalize incomes, it guarantees less prosperity across the board and spreads the misery, which is one of the many reasons Marxism and socialism have failed everywhere they've tried.

  David Limbaugh

  Government, Boards, Income

  7 Copy quote

• Almost all the fathers of socialism were members of the upper middle class or of the professions.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Father, Class, Middle

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Socialism was made to order for tyrants.

  James Cook

  Order, Tyrants, Made

  5 Copy quote

• The 21st century will not be about the battle between capitalism and socialism but between the forces of progress and the forces of conservatism.

  Tony Blair

  Progress, Battle, Century

  "Tony Blair's full speech". www.theguardian.com. September 28, 1999.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The victory of socialism will not descend like fate from heaven.

  Rosa Luxemburg

  Fate, Heaven, Victory

  15 Copy quote

• Labour has converted to Europe because Europe has converted to socialism.

  Roy Hattersley

  Europe, Labour

  6 Copy quote

• In the last few years we have learned to distinguish the means of Socialism from the ends.

  Hugh Gaitskell

  Mean, Years, Lasts

  12 Copy quote

• How can we appraise a proposal if the terms hurled at our ears can mean anything or nothing, and change their significance with the inflection of the voice? Welfare state, national socialism, radical, liberal, conservative, reactionary and a regiment of others ... these terms in today's usage, are generally compounds of confusion and prejudice. If our attitudes are muddled, our language is often to blame. A good tonic for clearer thinking is a dose of precise, legal definition.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Attitude, Mean, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• The Democrats, because they believe in socialism, redistribution, forced the banks and financial institutions to make the risky loans.

  Sean Hannity

  Believe, Financial, Loan

  "Hannity Referees Beckel Brothers Showdown". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. September 23, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I tend to not use the word "socialist," because even though more young adults in the United States in a poll say they support socialism than do capitalism, the word socialism doesn't have a lot of meaning in this country.

  Cynthia Kauffman

  Country, Support, Adults

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• States can be more or less democratic, and so can socialism. I think any ideal society that exists on a large scale, which is what we most likely have in store for us as a human race, will involve some aspects of socialism.

  Cynthia Kauffman

  Thinking, Race, Ideal Society

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Socialism is, in fact, a form of Christianity, people wishing to imitate Christ.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  People, Wish, Facts

  Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. June 12, 2003.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The interesting thing about that is one of the greatest critics of socialism and leftwing writings was Robert Michels who wrote a series of essays called "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" and in these essays he discusses how no matter what sorts of freedoms are advertised or put into a society structure, that all societies, all form of governments - whether they be a Roman republic, whether they be a democracy, whether they be a Russian communist system, whatever, a tribe... a tribal council - all of the continuously, throughout the ages, have all converted back into an oligarchy.

  Immortal Technique

  Writing, Government, Law

  Source: www.hiphopcanada.com

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat: these two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Self, Law, Two

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.20, Cosimo, Inc.

  102 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the central contest of the twentieth century has pitted capitalism against socialism, then F. A. Hayek has been its central figure. He helped us to understand why capitalism won by a knockout. It was Hayek who elaborated the basic argument demonstrating that central planning was nothing else but an impoverishing fantasy.

  Kenneth Minogue

  Planning, Fantasy, Argument

  "Giants Refreshed II: The Escape from Serfdom: Friedrich von Hayek and the Restoration of Liberty" in Times Literary Supplement ( p. 11), January 14, 2000.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Socialism without democracy is unthinkable.

  Karl Kautsky

  Democracy, Unthinkable

  John Hans Kautsky, Karl Kautsky (1924). “Karl Kautsky: Marxism, Revolution, and Democracy”, p.217, Transaction Publishers

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Marriage is socialism among two people.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Marriage, Eugenics, Two

  Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The choice facing the nation is between two totally different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism and bring together men and women from all walks of life who share a belief in freedom.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Dark, Fighting, Men

  Margaret Thatcher's speech in Perth, Scotland (May 13, 1983), as quoted in "British Vote Campaign Gets Off to Angry Start" in New York Times, May 14, 1983.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under fascism, citizens retain the responsibilities of owning property, without freedom to act and without any of the advantages of ownership. Under socialism, government officials acquire all the advantages of ownership, without any of the responsibilities, since they do not hold title to the property, but merely the right to use it -- at least until the next purge. In either case, the government officials hold the economic, political and legal power of life or death over the citizens.

  Ayn Rand

  Responsibility, Government, Political

  6 Copy quote

• Needless to say, under either system [socialism or fascism], the inequalities of income and standard of living are greater than anything possible under a free economy -- and a man's position is determined, not by his productive ability and achievement, but by political pull and force. Under both systems, sacrifice is invoked as a magic, omnipotent solution in any crisis -- and "the public good" is the altar on which victims are immolated.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Men, Political

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.175, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• What I used to respect was not really aristocracy, but a set of personal qualities which aristocracy then developed better than any other system . . . a set of qualities, however, whose merit lay only in a psychology of non-calculative, non-competitive disinterestedness, truthfulness, courage, and generosity fostered by good education, minimum economic stress, and assumed position, AND JUST AS ACHIEVABLE THROUGH SOCIALISM AS THROUGH ARISTOCRACY.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Stress, Personal Qualities, Generosity

  Letter to C.L. Moore (c. mid-October 1936), in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, (p. 566), 1996.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• When external and internal forces hostile to the development of socialism try to turn the development of a given socialist country in the direction of the restoration of the capitalist system, when a threat arises to the cause of socialism in that country ... this is no longer merely a problem for that country's people, but a common problem, the concern of all socialist countries.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Country, Socialist Countries, People

  Speech at the 5th Congress of the Polish United Workers Party (12 November 1968), quoted in "The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy" by Matthew J. Ouimet, 2003.

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ' Socialism ' and ' Communism ' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.

  George Orwell

  Sex, Fruit Juice, Feminist

  George Orwell (2001). “Orwell's England: the Road to Wigan Pier in the context of essays, reviews, letters and poems selected from the Complete works of George Orwell”, ePenguin

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• All socialism involves slavery.... That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires. The relation admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. The essential question is -- How much is he compelled to labor for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit?

  Herbert Spencer

  Responsibility, Community, Desire

  5 Copy quote

• It is quite possible that China may reach the stages of socialism and communism considerably later than your countries in the West which are so much more highly developed economically.

  Mao Zedong

  Country, May, West

  4 Copy quote