Quoty: quotes tagged with 'socialism'

Government is a disease that masquerades as its...

Government is a disease that masquerades as its own cure.

Author: Robert Lefevre, Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_LeFevre#Quotes
Saved by jordy in politics socialism

It will not be long before the public finances ...

It will not be long before the public finances reach a state of complete disorder. How could it be otherwise when the state is responsible for furnishing everything to everybody? The people will be crushed under the burden of taxes; loan after loan will be floated; after having drained the present, the state will devour the future.

Finally, as it will be accepted in principle that the state is responsible for establishing fraternity on behalf of its citizens, we shall see the entire people transformed into petitioners. Landed property, agriculture, industry, commerce, shipping, industrial companies, all will bestir themselves to claim favors from the state. The public treasury will be literally pillaged. Everyone will have good reasons to prove that legal fraternity should be interpreted in this sense: "Let me have the benefits, and let others pay the costs." Everyone's effort will be directed toward snatching a scrap of fraternal privilege from the legislature. The suffering classes, although having the greatest claim, will not always have the greatest success; their multitude will, meanwhile, increase constantly, from which it follows that we can have only one revolution after another.
Author: Frederic Bastiat, Source: http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss4.html
Saved by cboyack in government socialism revolution economy taxes properroleofgovernment

A government big enough to give you everything ...

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
Author: Gerald Ford, Source: Unknown
Saved by cboyack in government welfare socialism communism

The social system based on and consonant with t...

The social system based on and consonant with the altruist morality�with the code of self-sacrifice�is socialism, in all or any of its variants: fascism, Nazism, communism. All of them treat man as a sacrificial animal to be immolated for the benefit of the group, the tribe, the society, the state. Soviet Russia is the ultimate result, the final product, the full, consistent embodiment of the altruist morality in practice; it represents the only way that that morality can ever be practiced.
Author: Ayn Rand, Source: "Conservatism: An Obituary," Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 195.
Saved by cboyack in socialism charity fascism altruism

We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our...

We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our own bread and earn our own clothing, or go without; there was no other choice. We did it then, and we are able to do the same to-day. I want to enlist the sympathies of the ladies among the Latter-day Saints, to see what we can do for ourselves with regard to schooling our children. Do not say you cannot school them, for you can... I understand that the other night there was a school meeting in one of the wards of this city, and a part there--a poor miserable apostate--said, "We want a free school, and we want to have the name of establishing the first free school in Utah." To call a person a poor miserable apostate may seem like a harsh word; but what shall we call a man who talks about free schools and who would have all the people taxed to support them, and yet would take his rifle and threaten to shoot the man who had the collection of the ordinary light taxes levied in this Territory--taxes which are lighter than any levied in any other portion of the country?
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses 16:19-20
Saved by cboyack in socialism education homeschool taxes school charity force poverty robbery

I am opposed to free education as much as I am ...

I am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking property from one man and giving it to another who knows not how to take care of it... I do not believe in allowing my charities to go through the hands of robbers who pocket nine-tenths themselves and give one tenth to the poor... Would I encourage free schools by taxation? No!
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses Vol. 18, p. 357
Saved by cboyack in socialism education taxes school charity force poverty robbery

The Church as a Church does not believe in war ...

The Church as a Church does not believe in war and yet since its organization whenever war has come we have done our part ... we do thoroughly believe in building up our home defenses to the maximum extent necessary, but we do not believe that aggression should be carried on in the name and under the false cloak of defense. We therefore look with sorrowing eyes at the present use to which a great part of the funds being raised by taxes and by borrowing is being put ... We believe that our real threat comes from within and not from without, and it comes from the underlying spirit common to Naziism, Fascism, and Communism, namely, the spirit which would array class against class, which would set up a socialistic state of some sort, which would rob the people of the liberties which we possess under the Constitution, and would set up such a reign of terror as exists now in many parts of Europe ...
Author: LDS First Presidency, Source: Letter to U.S. Treasury, September 30, 1941
Saved by cboyack in defense constitution liberty welfare socialism communism war nazi society terrorism aggression

We're going to take all the money we think is u...

We're going to take all the money we think is unnecessarily being spent and take it from the "haves" and give it to the "have nots".
Author: Lyndon B. Johnson, Source: 1964 Congressional Record, p. 6142, Remarks of the President to a Group of Leaders of Organizations of Senior Citizens in the Fish Room, March 24, 1964
Saved by cboyack in government socialism money plunder robbery

...if government can of its own volition create...

...if government can of its own volition create a right in one person which did not theretofore exist, it must needs have the power to impose a duty on another which theretofore did not exist. But it can enforce such a duty only by compelling the obligor to give up either his life, his liberty or his property, and this it cannot do without depriving him of his unalienable natural rights.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/chapter_3.html
Saved by cboyack in liberty government freedom socialism life duty right force property

Even though it be true that all men share the s...

Even though it be true that all men share the same moral code with respect to human freedom, history demonstrates that they have a strong disposition to do through government that which would violate that code if done outside its framework. They seem to divorce their ethical from their political principles and become oblivious to the moral consequences of the laws they favor.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/introduction.html
Saved by cboyack in liberty freedom socialism principle morality law force

[O]ur tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost...

[O]ur tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost the only landmark which now divides the federalists from the republicans, that Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money.
Author: Thomas Jefferson, Source: Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin (June 16, 1817), in 10 WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
Saved by cboyack in constitution government socialism taxes generalwelfare

Money cannot be applied to the General Welfare,...

Money cannot be applied to the General Welfare, otherwise than by an application of it to some particular measure conducive to the General Welfare. Whenever, therefore, money has been raised by the General Authority, and is to be applied to a particular measure, a question arises whether the particular measure be within the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the money requisite for it may be applied to it; if it be not, no such application can be made.
Author: James Madison, Source: Report on Resolutions, in 6 WRITINGS OF JAMES MADISON
Saved by cboyack in constitution government socialism taxes generalwelfare

Political thought has traditionally been polari...

Political thought has traditionally been polarized between competing theories, one position emphasizing man's communality and the other his individuality.

The theory of communality has been characterized by a belief in objective reality---a strand of classical Greek thought which held that because the good existed and could be discerned, force was justified in obtaining it; that is, the good is known and is embodied in the whole of the community, and the individual may therefore be coerced into conforming to that fact. Force is legitimated by the end to be achieved.

The theory of individuality was based upon a rejection of the premise that man can discern objective reality by reason and by intuition. Denying either (or both) the existence of universal principles or the ability of man to perceive them if they did exist, this form of liberalism asserts the subjectivity of knowledge and ethics, since both arise solely from man's sense experience and his individualistic desires. Freedom becomes simply the untrammeled accomplishment of individual desires. Coercion therefore has no moral base but is simply tolerated, at the lowest possible level, so that individual man might accomplish without infringement by others his individually discerned desires. Community is therefore minimal and artificial.

Latter-day Saint theology maintains that a mixture of truth and error exists in both classical Greek and liberal thought. Objective reality exists and can be known, forming the basis of uncoerced and natural community. At the same time, however, the Latter-day Saint belief in man's uncreated individuality and in the sanctity of his agency---an agency so sacrosanct that God himself will not infringe upon it---denies the legitimacy of force as a means of attaining the community's ends. Man's goal is seen as being the perfection of his individuality in the image of his Heavenly Father, until he is able to enjoy a celestial community. The attainment of such a goal, however, can only be accomplished by loving persuasion, not by force.

Latter-day Saint theology offers a solution to an age-old paradox---the conflict between individualism and communality---by suggesting a harmony between them in which each is essential to the other. Man's individuality, stemming from his eternal and uncreated intelligence and protected by the principle of agency, is developed to its ultimate godlike potential as he serves his brothers and sisters without compulsory means in righteousness and love.
Author: Edwin Brown Firmage, Source: �Eternal Principles of Government: A Theological Approach,� Ensign, Jun 1976, emphasis added
Saved by cboyack in politics liberty government freedom agency socialism individual charity force community coercion

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my ri...

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek opportunity to develop whatever talents God gave me-not security. I do not wish to be kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any earthly master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say- 'This, with God's help, I have done.' All this is what it means to be an American.
Author: Ezra Taft Benson, Source: General Conference, April 1969
Saved by cboyack in liberty government freedom america socialism success life character work talent activism citizen dream risk personality patriot common peculiar dole utopia heritage

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it...

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.
Author: Frederic Bastiat, Source: The Law, p. 32
Saved by cboyack in government socialism society association