"What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“Whence shall come the new barbarians? Go through the squalid quarters of great cities, and you may see, even now, their gathering hordes! How shall learning perish? Men will cease to read, and books will kindle fires and be turned into cartridges.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“The great cause of inequality in the distribution of wealth is inequality in the ownership of land. The ownership of land is the great fundamental fact which ultimately determines the social, the political, and consequently the intellectual and moral condition of a people.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“behind dim empires vaguer ghosts of empire loom.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“We speak of Liberty as one thing, and of virtue, wealth, knowledge, invention, national strength, and national independence as other things. But, of all these, Liberty is the source, the mother, the necessary condition.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“The amount of wealth produced is nowhere commensurate with the desire for wealth, and desire mounts with every additional opportunity for gratification.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world, and others no right."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"There are only three ways by which any individual can get wealth — by work, by gift or by theft. And, clearly, the reason why the workers get so little is that the beggars and thieves get so much."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"There are people into whose heads it never enters to conceive of any better state of society than that which now exists."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"The protection of the masses has in all times been the pretense of tyranny - the plea of monarchy, of aristocracy, of special privilege of every kind. The slave owners justified slavery as protecting the slaves."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
“… A corrupt democratic government must finally corrupt the people, and when a people become corrupt there is no resurrection. The life is gone, only the carcass remains; and it is left but for the plowshares of fate to bury it out of sight.”
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"That alone is wise which is just; that alone is enduring which is right."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth, but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be."
—Henry George (1839-1897)
"Blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations seek to prevent their enemies from trading; protective tariffs are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their own people from trading. What protectionism teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war."
—Henry George (1839-1897)