William Graham Sumner quotes - page 2

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)
I have before me a newspaper slip on which a writer expresses the opinion that no one should be allowed to possess more than one million dollars' worth of property. View quote
William Graham Sumner
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. View quote
William Graham Sumner
Any prosperity policy is a delusion and a path to ruin. There is no economic lesson which the people of the United States need to take to heart more than that. In the second place the Spanish mistakes arose, in part, from confusing the public treasury with the national wealth. View quote
William Graham Sumner
The history of civil liberty is made up of campaigns against abuses of taxation. Protectionism is the great modern abuse of taxation; the abuse of taxation which is adapted to a republican form of government. Protectionism is now corrupting our political institutions just as slavery used to do. View quote
William Graham Sumner
It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme. View quote
William Graham Sumner
Joint-stock companies are yet in their infancy, and incorporated capital, instead of being a thing which can be overturned, is a thing which is becoming more and more indispensable. View quote
William Graham Sumner
Perhaps they do not recognize themselves, for a rich man is even harder to define than a poor one. View quote
William Graham Sumner
Men of routine or men who can do what they are told are not hard to find; but men who can think and plan and tell the routine men what to do are very rare. View quote
William Graham Sumner
There is every indication that we are to see new developments of the power of aggregated capital to serve civilization, and that the new developments will be made right here in America. View quote
William Graham Sumner
The waste of capital, in proportion to the total capital, in this country between 1800 and 1850, in the attempts which were made to establish means of communication and transportation, was enormous. (William Graham Sumner)
We are to see the development of the country pushed forward at an unprecedented rate by an aggregation of capital, and a systematic application of it under the direction of competent men. View quote
William Graham Sumner
He who would be well taken care of must take care of himself. View quote
William Graham Sumner
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. View quote
William Graham Sumner
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. View quote
William Graham Sumner