Selected Quotes
from the Writings of Francis Neilson
Compiled by Edward J. Dodson
[A - H]
ACCOMPLISHMENT
When I undertake a task, it takes possession of me. It absorbs my
mental and physical energy and lets me have little or no time for any
other business. Perhaps that is why I get so much done. To do it as
well as I know how, in the shortest time, with the least mental
expense, has always been my rule, and it has saved me from the
anxieties of indecision and uncertainty of attack. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.180]
ADAMS, BROOKS
I can very well understand how the reader of today, so short of real
schooling, would turn from
The Law of Civilization and Decay as being merely the opinion
of one man -- Brooks Adams. Not knowing the world of thought that lies
behind this work it is not likely that he would be impressed by it.
...But Brooks Adams' volume is one tht any intelligent person can read
from beginning to end and, in some respects, he has a clearer economic
knowledge than Spengler had. ["The Decline of Civilizations,"Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, pp.268-269]
Neither Adams nor Spengler mentions the findings of Sir Henry Maine,
nor do they seem to realize that the simple economic principles of the
springtimes they refer to as having passed away still exist in not a
few Indian communities. And, yet, both men seem to be conscious that
the historyless people survive. ["The Decline of Civilizations,"Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.270]
ADAPTABILITY
Adaptability in man is an art; in the animal it is merely a
necessity.
Man, however, can visit any of the regions, and adapt
himself to the climatic conditions he finds there.
This special
art he has learned, how to protect himself in any clime and in any
situation, is his gift and his gift only. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.25]
ARISTOTLE
Perhaps Aristotle is to blame for leading so many philosophers
astray. When he laid down the axiom, "Man is by nature a
political animal," he, mayabe, unwittingly, started many
philosophical theologians and sociologists off on the wrong scent.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.159]
Aristotle did not know any more than most philosophers know what
Socrates was driving at. Aristotle's Ethics are those of a
freeman of a state based on slavery. Socrates' ethics antedate
slavery. [The Eleventh Commandment, p.160]
BOOKS
A man without books of wisdom is like a ship without a rudder. Yet,
it is far beyond one man's power to keep apace with the avalanche of
works put out by the presses season after season. All the student can
do is to select those that will add to his knowledge and stimulate his
thought, and I find now that nothing the masterpieces of the past.
Indeed, living in the past in this way has always been a source of
rejuvenation. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.286]
BUREAUCRACY
The bureaucracy is what is left of the middle form of the state, that
is: the organization of the political means for exploitation of the
economic means.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.182]
Bureaucratic tyranny is of long life, and once a vested interest is
set up, it is hard to shift. ["The Silence of the Opposition,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.226]
BUTLER, JOSEPH / ON TRUTH
Joseph Butler, the author of
The Analogy of Religion, was born twelve years before Locke
died. If philosophy means the search for truth, Butler was a great
philosopher. He saw the truth in man's kinship with the Creator.
Without revealing any of the technique of the fundamental economist,
he struck to the core of economic truth. The earth ws given to man to
enjoy, and to this end all man was commanded to do was to labour and
observe justice. [The Eleventh Commandment, p.100]
CAPITAL GOODS / SIDE-EFFECT OF LABOR-SAVING
CHARACTERISTICS OF
...the creature born of superstition has an idea that, whoever
created the earth, it is the only source from which food can be
produced, and that the odd thing about it all is this: that the easier
labour-saving machines tend to make production, the harder it becomes
for labour to make a living. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.20]
CARTWRIGHT, JOHN
In certain circles he established a reputation as a writer on
political affairs, and his pamphlet on
American Independence, published in 1774, made a great
impression upon the politicians. It was followed by Take Your
Choice, perhaps the earliest work on parliamentary reform. ["The
Decay of Liberalism," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
pp.137-138]
Cartwright expressed the true Radical principle when he said: "Moderation
in conduct is wisdom, but moderation in principle is dishonour, and
moderation in justice is injustice. ["The Decay of Liberalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.139]
CHARITY / DESTRUCTIVE IMPACT OF
No one knows better than the workless object of charity that man does
not live by bread alone, for bread in lieu of work is a poison which
kills the spirit while it soothes the stomach.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.178]
CHRISTIANITY
One striking feature of the production of works on Jesus during the
past ten years is the number of titles which do not mention Christ or
the gospels. ...This may not be as significant as it appears, for the
rationalist attitude of hte last century has not changed much. Perhaps
there is now less desire to support the notion of a myth, since so
many serious works have appeared giving more and new historical data
concerning the life of Jesus.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.175]
Whether the gospel stories of [Jesus] are legends or not may be
material for the controversionalists, but there is other matter of far
greater consequence to be considered, and whether it be established
that Jesus live, or did not exist, makes little or no difference to
the value of the message contained in the gospel. The Eleventh
Commandment, p.176]
Jesus was a religious anarchist in the highest sense: "The
kingdom (reign) of God is within you!" [The Eleventh
Commandment, p.177]
CHURCHILL, WINSTON
There is this to say about his career: it is unique in the history of
England. There never was a politician who found refreshment with so
many strange bedfellows. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.252]
CITIZENSHIP / QUALIFICATIONS FOR
To know merely "something" of the Constitution, a "little"
of the history of the country, and to be "slightly" familiar
with the burning questions of the day, is no test of the political
intelligence of the voter. Yet, judging from the reports of
educationalists, certainly not ten percent of the people who go to
universities would be able to qualify. [Man at The Crossroads,
p.150]
The youth of today would have been considered an ignoramus when I was
working my way in this country fifty years ago, and the youth of our
time here, contrasted with the English youth, is deficient in the most
elementary knowledge which should enable him to become a responsible
citizen. [Man at The Crossroads, p.253]
CIVILIZATION / DECLINE OF
It is only when a culture begins to decline that sight of the purpose
is lost. There may have been delays, accidents and diversions, halting
now and then the progress of man; but all these must have been in the
nature of lessons which reminded him that he was not keeping his face
towards the goal. [Man At The Crossroads, pp.1-2]
In the last phases of old civilizations statesmanship lost technique
and vigour; the luxuries and attendant anxieties of imperial old age
brought on senility and incapacity. Political change brought no
beneficial reform because one party succeeded for the perquisites of
office. The fundamental causes of collapse in all ancient states were
alike. [The Eleventh Commandment, p.122]
CIVILIZATION / HISTORY OF
In histories of civilization, the authors, as a rule, present man as
a social and, sometimes, as a political animal. Philosophers for
thousands of years have disregarded man as an economic animal. Long
before he reached a social stage, or was enmeshed in any political
scheme, man was not far removed from the instinctive routine of animal
existence. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.11]
There are such wide differences of opinion among anthropologists and
sociologists as to the economic nature of the beginnings of peoples,
that it is almost impossible for the student to arrive at anything
like a clear understanding of when and how the land-tilling peasants
became tribute-paying subjects or slaves of conquerors. [The
Eleventh Commandment, p.40]
Civilization is not a system that springs full fledged from the
ground. The state -- political institutions -- is founded in areas
where there are men cultivating the land, because the state cannot
come into being and thrive without taking part of the produce of the
laborers. ["Toynbee's Study of History,"Modern Man and
the Liberal Arts, p.288]
No civilization has yet been discovered that did not have its
beginnings in conquest. The farther back we go in history, the more
abundant is the evidence that the ancient state was reared where
agriculture was practiced by defenseless people. ["Toynbee's
Study of History,"Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.288]
CIVILIZATION / HISTORY OF / JERICHO
It seems that the condition prevailing for a long time, possibly for
three or four centuries after the settlement, was that of peasant
communities; the small farmer, with his family, tilling the plot and
providing for the house. there is no evidence at all of communism or
socialism; evidently, the farmer enjoyed the work of his own hands.
Under this system of economic individualism a sturdy race grew up, but
at some time the weaker brethren, who, because of lack of skill,
illness, or thriftlessness, were forced to borrow from their
neighbors, found themselves in debt and gradually sank to the
positionof landless labourers -- slaves.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.189]
CIVILIZATION / HISTORY OF / SETTLEMENT
The rise of man from the stage of primitive agriculture, when he took
a fixed abode, to the stage of the organization of the primitive
community and the beginning of the state, marks a period of well-being
in history overlooked by modern recorders. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.55]
CONANT, JAMES BRYANT
One of those who wish to see the native radical appear once more upon
the political scene is Dr. James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard
University. It is plain from the first two sections of his article
that the radical Dr. Conant is in search of would satisfy neither an
English radical nor an American one, ... ["A Revival of Political
Radicalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.177]
Neither Paine nor Jefferson will do as models of the radical Dr.
Conant is seeking. Indeed, I doubt very much whether he is sure of the
type of man who would do for the job... This leads me to the belief
that Dr. Conant would not know an English radical if he met one. ["A
Revival of Political Radicalism," Modern Man and the Liberal
Arts, p.180]
Why should anyone from Harvard, of all places in this country,
imagine that art and culture were at any time a special privilege of
the few? ...Who throngs the gallaries of Europe and America? The
privileged aristocrats or the proletariat? ...I should humbly suggest
that Dr. Conant begin his inquiries as to the type of persons the
English radicals were by forgetting all he has read about the Fabians,
who date from 1883. ["A Revival of Political Radicalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.188]
CONFUCIUS
Many of his censures cannot be understood without a knowledge of the
conditions described in the
Li Ki. He said to his pupils: "Remember this, my
children, oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than any
tiger." [The Eleventh Commandment, p.48]
CLASSICS, THE
classics are out of date, and well they may be, because to a
thoughtful modern, a classic is a most uncomfortable work to read. The
uneasy conscience of modern lawmakers is quick to discover how
differently things were done in the early history of man. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.28]
COBDEN, RICHARD
It is only in his [Cobden's] speeches and writings ... that I find
the bedrock of Radicalism upon which the Liberalism of Gladstone's
policy was built. ...The principles of Cobden are principles that do
not change. They remain impervious to all the political, diplomatic,
industrial, and social evils that perplex the minds of clergymen,
politicians, sociologists, and latter-day philosophers. ["The
Decay of Liberalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.131]
Cobden had left to the Radicals of the Liberal party a special
mission to be promulgated from their platforms, and that was to deal
with the land question as he had dealt with protective tariffs. He
counselled them to revalue the land of the country and to levy taxes
upon it. ["The Decay of Liberalism," Modern Man and the
Liberal Arts, p.145]
COOPERATION
Cooperation can be voluntary or compulsory, and if the people of the
commonwealth have their "rights" conferred on them by the
State, then it must be a compulsory organization. Compulsion under
such a system is vital. On the other hand, it is impossible to have a
cooperative commonwealth that is not based upon natural rights, for if
it is to be cooperative, there must be harmony, and harmony can only
be obtained in a commonwealth when the people are free to unit, if
they so desire. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.113]
CORRUPTION / POLITICAL
For anyone to suggest that politicians will ever be so courageous as
to investigate the working of the Stock Exchange while a boom is in
process, is only another form of credulity ofthe kind fostered by
fatherly fabians.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.180]
CREATIVITY
Sometimes I felt my writing was at an end; that suddenly I had become
old. And, yet, I was afraid, if I let down, I would lose my nerve. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.152]
CURRENCY / COINAGE, HISTORY OF
... Lycurgus [of Laconia] hit upon a political expedient for
overcoming averice. "He withdrew all gold and silver money from
currency and ordained the use of iron money only." ...At a stroke
he solved the gold and silver questions of Laconia and put an end to
bribery, corruption, and theft. For, "when this (iron) money
obtained currency, many sorts of iniquity went into exile."
Gangsters, boodlers, keepers of harlots, racketeers, and gamblers
found no graft, spoil, or tribute in Laconia. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.60]
CURRENCY / PAPER, WITHOUT BACKING
was ever a greater fraud exercised upon innocent people than
that of paying gold certificates with a fifty-nine cent dollar? And
yet, the Executive was, in all probability, quite conscious that the
reduction of the gold content of the dollar was an unmitigated fraud,
[
Man at The Crossroads, p.75]
CYCLES
In the history of nationsl we can no longer ignore the manisfestation
of cycles and repetition of growth and deterioration. ["The
Decline of Civilizations,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.261]
DEFINING POLITICAL TERMS
So strange is the turmoil of ideas of our historians, economists, and
sociologists that it is almost impossible to find anyone today who can
define such terms as "radical," "liberal," "socialist"
or "communist." ["A Revival of Political Radicalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.175]
DEMOCRACY
Democracy in the purest sense of the term must have been established
at the beginning, and came to an end only when the original democrats
had made estates for themselves which were worth stealing. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.145]
DEMOCRACY / AND FREEDOM
A democracy without some sense of freedom for all its people is
nothing more than a political masquerade. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.164]
Somehow this nebulous thing -- democracy -- so often referred to in
the journals, survives in spite of all "religious faiths and
metaphysical beliefs." ["Education and Modern Man,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.53]
DEMOCRACY / POLITICAL
Political democracy is at last what its severest critics said it
would become in this country. It is the preserve of the unscrupulous
politician. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.164]
political democracy is a wobbly thing, and depends entirely
upon the individual for the meaning that is given to it, and not upon
the principles that are inherent in the idea. [Man at The
Crossroads, p.168]
One would be hard put to it to find a really democratic state. Such a
thing never existed; and, indeed, so long as men are men will never
exist. A state without class distinction is a political impossibility,
for the greatest snobs have always been those who have made their own
way in life. A self-made men rise in affluence, their desire for
social exclusiveness increasees. ["Education and Modern Man,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, pp. 51-52]
DEPRESSIONS / COST OF GOVERNMENT AS A
CONTRIBUTING CAUSE
How many depressions are necessary before statesmen and financiers
learn the great fact which looms large today, that each depresion
shows increasing cost of government and at the same time shows the
taxable area steadily diminishing? ...When will the people be told the
truth, that the national effort -- the great emergency -- must become
a habit and that balancing the budget really means spreading the
fiscal net wider to catch small fry? [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.143]
DEWEY, JOHN / ON GREEK SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS
I am at a loss to understand how such a student as Dr. Dewey could
misconstrue the efforts of the Greeks and the attempts of the
medievalists to apply the laws of reason to supernatural problems.
...[H]e constrasts two entirely different subjects: Greek science and
medieval theological philosophy. He does not contrast Greek science
and medieval science or Greek theological philosophy with that of the
Middle Ages. ["Science and the Liberal Arts,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.15]
DEWEY, JOHN / ON ATTITUDE TOWARD HISTORY
Dr. Dewey's horror of looking back amuses me because he does not seem
to realize that, at his best, he is the product of the past. He could
not live and mvoe and have his being without the tradition that
brought him forth. I suppose it is all very well to have one's eye
fixed upon the future if vision can penetrate the density of the fog
in which we live, but I see no valid reason why Dr. Dewey should not
take a look back now for the purpose of picking up again some of the
best threads of the tradition we have carelessly dropped during the
past fifty years. ["Science and the Liberal Arts,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.21]
DEWEY, JOHN / ON LIBERAL THOUGHT
In a recent number of
Fortune, Dr. John Dewey goes to some pains ... to restate
the truth as he sees it. The first point that he makes is:
"We are told that
scientific subjects have been encroaching upon literary subjects,
which alone are truly humanistic. We are told that zeal for the
practical and utilitarian has resulted in displacement of a liberal
education by one that is merely vocational, one that narrows the
whole man down to that fraction of his being concerned with making a
living. ..."
Nowhere in the article does my learned colleague tell us who made the
protest that "scientific subjects have been encroaching upon
literary subjects." No one I know whould make such an absurd
statement. Science and the liberal arts ... have been sister studies
in the universities for at least a thousand years. ["Science and
the Liberal Arts," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.12]
DIPLOMACY / FAILURE OF FOLLOWING THE FIRST WORLD
WAR
For sheer incompetence, chicanery, and audacious misrepresentation,
Western politcians and editors during the past fourteen years have
established a record without rival in the past and not likely to be
matched in the future. They and their misinformed supporters destroyed
Europe.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.116]
DOVE, PATRICK EDWARD / THEORY OF HUMAN
PROGRESSION
Here is a little-known work, which succeeds in uniting faith and
reason in the most illuminating way. ...It contains an abundance of
essential information. Dove's mind was alert and penetrative.
The Eleventh Commandment, pp. 110-111]
He says men never go backward, they always go forward, and he
ridicules the idea that justice can be restored only the redivision of
the lands. He points out that such a division would not only be
useless, but quite improper. He says such a scheme would be "more
than useless -- it is unjust; and unjust,not to the present so-called
proprietors, but to the human beings who are continually being born
into the world, and who have exactly the same natural right to a
portion that their predecessors have. ...The actual division
of the soil need never be anticipated, not woudl such a division be
just, if the divided portions were made the property (legally, for
they could never be so morally) of individuals." ...Dove points
out that successive generations of men cannot have their fractional
share of the actual soil: "How can a division of the advantages
of the natural earth be effected?" Then Dove makes the following
reply:
By the division of its annual value or rent; that is, by
making the rent of the soil the common property of the nation. That
is (as the taxation is the common proeprty of the state), by taking
the whole of the taxes out of the rents of the soil, and thereby
abolishing all other kinds of taxation whatever. ...
[The Eleventh Commandment, pp. 112-113]
DUGUIT, LEON
Duguit, professor of law in the university of Bordeaux, says in his
Law in the Modern State: "However little we may like it,
the evidence conclusively demonstrates that the ideas which formerly
lay at the very base of our political systems are disintegrating.
Systems of law under which, until our own time, society has lived, are
in a condition of dislocation. The new system that is to replace it is
built on entirely different conceptions." Few will oppose this
notion. Indeed, it is commonplace criticism that the bureaucratic and
juristic state is no longer serviceable. It is overgrown, top-heavy,
not worth its cost, and, worse, gives no hope at all of producing a
statesman who might reform it from within. [The Eleventh
Commandment, p.124]
ECONOMICS PROFESSORS
Long before the appearance of the New Dealers that Roosevelt gathered
round him, I had tested the economic intelligence of the type of
academician who was afterwards collected into what was called the
Brain Trust; and I had found most of them incapable of giving precise
definitions of fundamental economic terms. Therefore, in dealing with
George as a scholar, I intended to enlighten, if possible, the
gentlemen who were taking payment for teaching their pupils political
economy and who were lacking in a knowledge of the real meaning of
such terms as land, labor, capital, and property. [
My Life in Two Worlds, pp.175-176]
Tell a professorial economist that the first man was the first
economist, because every day of his life he had a demonstration of
fundamental economics in process, and he would not know what on earth
you were talking about. [Man At The Crossroads, p.91]
EDUCATION
In my travels over the land, I had met faculties and students in many
institutions and had seen for myself the woeful state into which we
had fallen. In the exact sciences, all was well, but in the
departments that were formerly classified as the humanities, a rot had
set in, and the worst of it was, few men seemed to be conscious of the
grave state of affairs. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.136]
It is difficult to think of what we call education bothering the
early families who were concerned in agriculture, fishing and hunting.
Education, in the sense that we use the term, to my mind, always seems
to imply sad deficiencies in the home. [Man At The Crossroads,
p.55]
A system of education which does not explain man to man, which gives
him no inkling at all of the natural rights that have been filched
from him, leaving him ignorant of his relationship to the universe,
and sending him forth into a congested labor market, is only a thing
to be abhorred, but to be abolished as speedily as possible - before
it is too late. [Man at The Crossroads, p.143]
When education was hard to get, it was prized; when it become
anybody's toy, it was scorned. [Man at The Crossroads, p.251]
Surely it is expecting far too much from the young folks who clutter
up our colleges and universities that in the course of fitting
themselves for citizenship as intelligent beings, they should show
that they are well grounded in history, economics, and what is called
political science. ["The Silence of the Opposition," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.199]
Those who have not taken courses in the exact sciences I find
lamentably deficient in the elements of the studies they are supposed
to have mastered. ["The Silence of the Opposition," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.200]
Now our halls of learning are thronged with thousands, and the
librarians tell us that those who pass from them are as illiterate as
the war statistics prove. ["The Silence of the Opposition,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.204]
... of all the reforms of which the authors were the most optimistic,
the greatest failure has been that of the education of the masses.
...It is hard to refute the charge that the more schooling the
children receive, the less they learn. ["The Silence of the
Opposition," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.226]
EDUCATION / AND HISTORY
We have ignored the essential history of peoples and nations, and how
they suffered for their misdemeanors and lack of education. ["Education
and Modern Man,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.48]
One reason for the bewildering state of affairs wrought by wars,
tariffs, and strikes is that the history that is taught in the schools
today is utterly valueless so far as informing the student is
concerned. He is not told about the struggles of his fathers who
desired to make the world a safer and better place for posterity. ["The
Silence of the Opposition," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.226]
EDUCATION / JOHN DEWEY'S INFLUENCE ON
John Dewey had succeeded in twisting out of shape every notion of
what a university should be. And now that institutions were pouring
out men who had been instructed according to his ideas, it was a
simple matter to estimate if any advantage had been gained. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.136.]
... it is incumbent upon the "progressives" to tell
old-fashioned persons like myself by what right they claim that the
new methods in education are superior to those upon which European
civilization at its best put the hallmark of perfection. ["Science
and the Liberal Arts," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.4]
EDUCATION / ROBERT M. HUTCHINS' INFLUENCE ON
What was necessary to restore the old system that had served men so
well? Hutchins had been collecting the materials for this explosion,
and he incorporated them in a book which he called The Higher Learning
in America. The storm it raised indicated clearly that its publication
was necessary. The outburst from indignant "educationists"
of various schools revealed to me that nothing could have been more
timely than this conservative and moderate statement of the condition
of affairs. There was not an ill-considered sentence in the book. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.137]
EDUCATION / SCIENTIFIC METHOD INFLUENCE ON
... from the day when devotion to the "scientific method"
was introduced into the classrooms of colleges, an educated person has
been looked upon as a curiosity and is still regarded as a highbrow. ["Science
and the Liberal Arts,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.2]
Sure ... it is incumbent upon the "progressives" to
reconsider the position they have taken. Indeed, it seems to me that
they show in much of their writing the necessity for restoring the
liberal arts to their proper place in the system of education. No one
reveals the need for the old-fashioned type of education so much as
they. ["Science and the Liberal Arts," Modern Man and
the Liberal Arts, p.36.]
EINSTEIN, ALBERT
I do not remember ever meeting a great man who had such a
delightfully boyish appreciation of broad fun. And what a rollicking,
contagious laugh; but, yet, he was extremely shy and most reserved.
There was something in his shyness that was almost like suspicion, and
many people have mistaken his reserve for skepticism. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.141]
I think, notwithstanding Dr. Dewey's ideas of what science is and
scientists are, that most of them would agree with Einstein that
science, like religion, is a refuge fro men who look upon the human
world as a chaos beyond our ordering. ["Science and the Liberal
Arts," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.30]
ENCLOSURES
The procedure of enclosure by force may be imagined easily enough
after the period of assarting a tract, that is, clearing it of trees
and bushes for arable land or even pasture. The lord of the domain
would attempt to add it to his estate. Hence, the numerous quarrels
which arose about the rights of the peasants who had cleared the
tract. ...Thus came slowly into being a class of careless men who were
deprived of reason to labor because they were not permitted to enjoy
the work of their hands. ["The Conspiracy Against the English
Peasantry,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.89-90]
That millions of your kin may be destroyed to benefit the rich few by
increasing their domains and giving them cheap labor is now found to
have been a policy as evil as that which ruined Rome. For every one to
benefit, hundreds are despoiled, ... ["The Conspiracy Against the
English Peasantry," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.]
Despite the voluminous evidence produced by the defenders of
enclosure that the purpose of it was to improve agriculture, there
exists a great store of facts which show clearly that the peasantry
was despoiled in the process. ["The Conspiracy Against the
English Peasantry," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.100]
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
Economic pressure has been withdrawn, because there is no equality of
opportunity, and economic pressure is absolutely essential if a man is
to enjoy equality of opportunity to use the earth. Human rights are
natural rights, but your thorough-going humanist will have none of it.
[
Man At The Crossroads, p.118]
A conception of liberty that is not based on equality of opportunity
is of little value to a people, and history undoubtedly shows that
mere political and emotional notions of liberty do not work out in
practice. [Man at The Crossroads, p.168]
It never occurred to the modern saviors of mankind that men might do
all these things for themselves infinitely better if they were given
the chance, that is, a thorough system of equality of opportunity,
which would enable them to work out their own social and moral
salvation. [The Eleventh Commandment, p.166]
This phrase "equality of opportunity" has been submitted to
the most shocking abusees during the past decade. Of all the phrases
and terms used by the real radicals of England and of this country, it
is the one that has been singled out for particularly severe
mistreatment. The reason is that few know its origin and what it
means. ["A Revival of Political Radicalism," Modern Man
and the Liberal Arts, p.183]
ETHICS
a man who has any principle that is worth preserving, will act
conscientiously in public dealings, and in these affairs be guided by
the moral attitude which he deems essential in his private life. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.176]
EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION / MADE UNSTABLE BY
VERSAILLES TREATY
The madness of 1914 was the beginning of the end, and so that there
would be no doubt about it, the madness of Versailles made sure of it.
To help kill off a generation was a national necessity for the Powers,
to ruin and starve the survivors was necessary to save Europe. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.144]
EVIL
Punishment is the consequence of disobedience, and evil is the one
unnecessary thing which man persists in doing to his hurt. It is human
to err, because man lives by the law of man and not by the law of God.
He has the choice; indeed, ... scepticism should keep him straight. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.101]
EVIL / CAUSE OF
Evil is the consequence of man's own folly. If he hath the power,
through the development of scientific method, to war upon disease and
conquer it, he hath the power, also, to conquer the problems of
ignorance and poverty. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.8]
EVOLUTION
Man
has the dual capacity of gathering the fruits which Nature
provides and, besides, using these fruits for the purpose of
cultivating them. And with this added capacity, he also has another,
which is solely his own in the animal kingdom, and that is, of
selecting and preparing the soil near his habitation, and inventing
and using devices for the protection of the growth of the seed. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.10]
no matter how much things differ in degree, so far as the
primary needs are concerned, man has not changed as a land animal in
any particular at all. When, however, one regards the subject from a
comparative point of view, modern man suffers in every particular. [Man
At The Crossroads, p.61]
FABIANS / AND LIBERALS
When Liberals flirted with the theories of the Fabians and began to
put forward measures that called for bureaucrats to administer them, I
decided that a change had taken place which meant no good for the
country. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.209]
FABIANS / CHALLENGE TO THEIR OBJECTIVES
It was a difficult task which was undertaken by the Fabians - that of
attempting to convince the British masses that there was no such thing
in social matters as abstract rights - for somehow the working classes
of England held tenaciously to the idea that without basic rights to
support them, it was a poor lookout for them to depend on future "rights"
that were to be granted by the State, when a new political and
economic system was inaugurated by the Fabians. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.109]
A study of the pamphlets published by the Fabian society, when read
with a knowledge of the ideas and opinions of those extraordinary
groups of radicals who came after John Wilkes, will convince any
earnest student that John Morley was right when he said: "The
Fabians botched the business. The right road faced them, but they
obstinately took the wrong turn." How a bureaucratically minded
fellow was to know the real road when he saw it is something I have
never understood. ["A Revival of Political Radicalism," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.189]
FEUDALISM / STATUS OF PEASANTS
No matter how the particularists may decide the questions post by
feudalism, it cannot be refuted that the tillers of the soil, even in
the days before the conquest, enjoyed economic conditions denied to
the vast majority of franchised men today. ["The Conspiracy
Against the English Peasantry,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.85]
FORD, HENRY
the great lesson that Henry Ford endeavored to teach, during
the Century of Progress Fair in Chicago, by setting up in a hall every
process from the rawest material to the finished car, went practically
unheeded. This was one of the greatest pieces of educational work in
economics that was ever put before a people, but I never heard that
any school or university thought it was worth the trouble to organize
a band of students and take them to the Fair, for the specific
purposes of seeing that show and having someone explain it to them.
Perhaps no university professor capable of giving an explanation could
be found! [
Man At The Crossroads, p.91]
FOX, CHARLES JAMES
Political democracy has suffered an extraordinary relapse. It would
be a salutary move on the part of the sponsors of the adult classes
which are busy reading Plato, Aristotle, Montaigne, Kant, Shakespeare,
and Karl Marx, to spend a dollar upon Fox's speeches in the Everyman
Series. In them will be found enough material to make an intelligent
student wonder what on earth has happened in this Republic -- now a
mere political democracy -- since Fox boasted in the House of Commons
that America had the fairest and justest constitution of any state in
the world. ["The Silence of the Opposition,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.209]
When Fox dealt with a subject, his hearers knew how the crisis arose,
what the situation was, and what the future would be. He poured into
his examinations of the policies of the government and the conduct of
its members a wealth of information and incisive analysis. They are
models of political wisdom and straightforward methods of
parliamentary debate. ["The Silence of the Opposition," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.210]
FOUNDING FATHERS
Owing to the changes which have taken place in recent years with
regard to all notions of liberty, it will soon be necessary to forget,
for celebration speeches, all the Founding Fathers. We may be drawing
near to the time when children in the schools will be told they must
not mention the names of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.169]
FRANCHISE, THE / AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY
in all countries, that there is a very large section of the
proletariat, eligible for the electoral register, "fit and proper
persons," to cast a vote but who are, so far as their own
interests are concerned, utterly incompetent at any time to make a
decision as to what is good for them.
the class I refer to
should be disfranchised in the interest of what is called political
democracy. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.37]
FREEDOM / ECONOMIC
Economic freedom surely means freedom to use land, and the corollary
is, man himself must use it, without the assistance of government.
Give man economic freedom and he needs no politician to subsidize him,
no matter how dominating his personality may be to a certain type of
elector. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.178]
Economic freedom means government of the community, by the community,
and not bureaucratic government and the spoils system. [Man at The
Crossroads, p.178]
FRIENDSHIPS
friends can be the very worst wasters of one's time,
if
I had followed the bent that is so common today, I feel sure that I
would never have been able to cope with the tasks that fell to my lot.
[
My Life in Two Worlds, pp.147 and 148]
FRIENDSHIPS / INTELLECTUAL AND PHILOSOPHIC
What attracted me to [the few men and women I usually associated with
in Chicago] was their intellectual powers. They were eminent in their
professions and each always had something to give me that would
improve my mind. And I hope they sought my company because they could
learn something from me. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.149]
FRONTIERS
A frontier is not a mere geographical line drawn to mark the boundary
of ownership and jurisdiction; it is something else; it is a wall of
protection against invaders and, whether there be actually a wall
built to mark the area or not, the frontier can be maintained as the
State desires, only through restrictive rules and regulations, the
breaking of which would instantly bring upon the head of the culprit
severe penalties. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.30]
When other civilizations declined and a second religiousness
appeared, there were still great areas of the world in which not only
new civilizations were to know their springtime, but there was also a
sense that somewhere beyond there was in virgin lands a refuge to be
found for those who dared venture forth. Today every frontier is
sealed. The omnipotent state in every section of the globe rules
whether a visitor may cross its frontier. ["The Decline of
Civilizations,"Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.272]
FUTURE / PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN
How any intelligent student can review the events recorded in the
daily newspapers during the past thirty years and remain complacent as
to the future of men in a world of chaos is beyond explanation; and,
yet, there are millions in the great countries of the world who
imagine that the hopes of the political idealists are about to be
realized. But these imaginings are in direct opposition to every
indication observed by the profoundest historians of this day. These
sanguine individuals do not realize that there has been a re-diagnosis
of the social diseases of the period. They either do not know or, if
they do, they deliberately ignore the fact that, as has been predicted
by scholars so often during the past fifty years, the future was never
so black. ["The Conspiracy Against the English Peasantry,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, pp.124-125]
GENERAL WELFARE
There can be no general welfare without justice and liberty. There
can be no tranquility without justice and liberty. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.212]
GENERAL WELFARE / AND U.S. CONSTITUTION
There is nothing suggested in the preamble which extends further than
the precise powers conferred in the provisions of the articles, and
those who would interpret the general welfare phrase in an economic or
a social sense for local humanitarian purposes, are guilty of
importing into the compact an idea utterly alien to the framers of the
document. [
Man at The Crossroads, p.214]
GEORGE, HENRY / SCHOLARSHIP OF
...
Progress and Poverty shows a familiarity with studies that lie
on the fringe of the science of political economy. There are
innumerable references to authors who are not mentioned by writers on
economic subjects, even so late as John Stuart Mill. ["Henry
George, The Scholar," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.62]
... when an idea starts in the mind of a man like George, it begs to
be clothed. It demands education. It is unceasing in its beseechings
to be put into fine intellectual raiment. That is the wonderful thing
about an idea. Once it takes root in the mind of a poor man, almost
uninstructed, he can, in a few years, make of himself a scholar. ["Henry
George, The Scholar," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
pp.64-65]
George was not only a scholar; he was a prophet. In his book there
are many passages which describe vividly the conditions we have
reached in this country. ["Henry George, The Scholar," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.69]
... within a few years (perhaps eight or ten at most), he literally
combed the histories of his time for the abundance of material he
used. Indeed, he has made it easy for any young man of inquiring mind
and persevering spirit to make of himself a well-informed individual
in a fourth of the time that it took George to gather his knowledge. ["Henry
George, The Scholar," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.73]
... the way in which George uses such material indicates that he had
a much wider knowledge than what could have been gleaned from
secondary sources. ["Henry George, The Scholar," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.77]
GEORGISTS / SIGNIFICANCE OF AS REFORMERS
I can remember the time when it was possible in this country to meet
Radicals and Liberals in nearly all the important centers of every
state. There were societies where one could speak on Paine and
Jefferson, with the certainty that the audience would not only be
interested but would understand what these men meant to America. There
are few Radicals and Liberals in the country now. Most of them are to
be found among the Georgists who promulgate the gospel of
Progress and Poverty. ["The Decay of Liberalism,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.129]
GOD / AND JUSTICE
Oppression melted the heart of the stern God of the Jews, and he
pitied them. Economic subjugation was always the offence which at last
called for heavenly intervention and brought aid from the Most High. [
The Eleventh Commandment, p.3]
GOVERNMENT / LOCAL
Local government generally is just as rotten as it can be! This
country [the United States] of all countries in the world, which
practiced to advantage pioneering, inventiveness, large scale leisure,
risk, frugality and thrift, when I knew it first, has become to a very
great extent, so far as politics are concerned, a relief constituency.
[
Man at The Crossroads, p.84]
GOVERNMENT DEBT
When considering this question of piling up debt and increasing the
supply of paper, it must not be forgotten that the future is heavy
with clouds, for the Social Security scheme is one of the chief means
today of increasing the loan of paper that labor must redeem some time
in the future. It is already recognized by the experts that labor of
the next generation will be producing the old-age pensions of its own
fathers. [
Man at The Crossroads, pp. 262-263]
GRANT, DR. / ON DESTRUCTIVE PRACTICES OF ANCIENT
ROME AND THE HEBREW PRIESTHOOD
No one has performed the necessary work of presenting an
Economic Background of the Gospels with greater care than Dr.
Grant. He is at great pains to emphasize the terrible consequences of
spoliation by the Romans, and, side by side with it, the other, not
less iniquitous system of tithe, "which combined to crush
initiative and ot destroy every incentive to accumulate proeprty."
[The Eleventh Commandment, p.267]
GREECE, ANCIENT / WEAKNESS OF
Behind the splendor of Greece there was a world of bitterness and
suffering. The populace clamored for doles; men were paid for
attending their own assembly;
and, no matter how many
concessions were made by the State to keep them quiet, the people
cried out for more and more, always desiring something new. This was
the condition of Athens when her freemen were the parasites of their
slaves.
Tax collectors roamed the country, searching for hidden
wealth and often these tax gatherers were accompanied by garrisons to
enforce the fiscal regulations. [
Man at The Crossroads, p. 269]
HAPPINESS / SOURCE OF
Most people have nothing definite to do with themselves; no large
program for the good of themselves or of others, to occupy their minds
and prove to be an avocation that will tend to make them happy. [
My Life in Two Worlds, p.140]
HEAVEN / ON EARTH
There is no heavenly commonwealth for men unless it be founded upon
God's justice, and the violation of it is a fundamental reason why
cultures become civilizations and civilizations disintegrate and
crumble away. ["Toynbee's Study of History,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.315]
HISTORIANS / ON PROPERTY RIGHTS
[Historians] never stop to ask themselves what is private property.
Nor do they think it necessary to differentiate between that which is
created -- land and all natural resources -- and the produce of the
laborer. ["Toynbee's Study of History,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.309]
HISTORIANS / OVERLOOKING ISSUE OF LAND MONOPOLY
IN ANCIENT TIMES
Some authors scarcely mention it, and yet it is the most significant
economic factor connected with the land of Jesus at the time of his
birth. It is strange how this has been overlooked by so many writers
of the life and times of Jesus. Few seem to understand that the
luxurious city is nearly always a corollary of an impoverished people.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.206]
HISTORY / NEGLECT OF IN EDUCATION
The only conclusion one can draw for this neglect in learning from
the past is that the past is not now known as it was by those of two
generations ago. ["The Decline of Civilizations,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.260]
HISTORY / PRESENTATION OF
... history as a form should include all the elements of the
structure of political institutions, so that their character may be
determined, and so that their purpose may be understood. A philosophy
of history which begins only with the state cannot be a complete
philosophy. It is necessary to know how and why the state came into
being, and the search for this knowledge should be the essential in
the work of the historian.
The Eleventh Commandment, p.155]
... a knowledge of economic fundamentals is necessary if the
development and the decline of the state are to be understood aright.
Historians can no longer dispense with primitive or natural conditions
and characteristics; the day is gone when their academic rules, made
to fit their deficiencies, decided the nature and the limit of the
inquiry. Motive, too, can no longer be relegated to limbo as an
improper question affronting polite society. [The Eleventh
Commandment, p.155]
There is evidence enough of the plight of the people, but how it
escaped the attention of so many of the writers concerned with the
conditions of the factory towns at the end of the eighteenth century
is one of the most singular mysteries in recording that I have known.
["The Conspiracy Against the English Peasantry," Modern
Man and the Liberal Arts, p.96]
The English wit who said, "Very nearly everything in history
very nearly did not happen" must have made a profound study of
the historians of our grandfathers' days. And probably he was familiar
with Nietzsche's observation: "All historians relate things that
have never existed save in the imagination." ["The
Conspiracy Against the English Peasantry," Modern Man and the
Liberal Arts, p.109]
HISTORY / REASONS FOR RECORDING
Precious little history would have been worth recording if war and
invasion had not brought about the extremes of power and weakness,
riches and poverty, monopoly and slavery. It is only when a background
for a people is required, that the historian collaborates with the
archaeologist, who is better qualified for the job of seeking origins.
[
The Eleventh Commandment, p.39]
...man's misery is the very basis on which his recorded history is
usually built up. [The Eleventh Commandment, p.55]
But what is it all for? What does history say to us? What is the
lesson that we must take home to ourselves? Has it all been for
naught, or are the cycles and the turmoils of millenia prophetic
warnings of a fate that is overtaking us speedily? ...Or is history no
more than the tattered garment of life rent by lawless men? ["Toynbee's
Study of History," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.317]
HOOK, SIDNEY / ON EDUCATION
Recently I was attracted by a book entitled
Education for Modern Man, by Sidney Hook. ...It appears to me
that it is not really a rebuttal in a quarrel between two schools of
thought. And, yet, in the list of educational ends which Dr. Hook
presents to us, six out of the seven are canons that have always been
accepted. ...The sixth aim, however, is somewhat new:
At some level, it
[education] should equip young men and women with the general skills
and techniques and the specialized knowledge which, together with
the virtues and aptitudes already mentioned, will make it possible
for them to do some productive work related to their capacities and
interests.
This must be included in the list to supply the deficiencies caused
by the abolition of the system of apprenticeship to trades. ["Education
and Modern Man," Modern Man and the Liberal Arts,
p.50-51]
Paragraph after paragraph in this work is beyond the understanding of
the man who has been educated in the present system. ...And it is a
pity that Dr. Hook indicates in so many places that he is not aware of
the revolution that has been taking place in the thought of
scientists. ...I have become more convinced than ever that no
improvement can be made in education by those who follow the ideas of
Dr. Hook. ["Education and Modern Man," Modern Man and
the Liberal Arts, p.57]
HUMAN NATURE
Men are still men, and so long as they have to work for food, fuel,
clothing, and shelter, they will be the same as they were in the days
of Plato. Nothing, indeed, is changed in the economic sense. It is
only in the sphere of spiritual things that there has been a falling
off. ["Education and Modern Man,"
Modern Man and the Liberal Arts, p.47]
HUMAN POWERS
With man,
the endowment of mind suggests not only productive
power, and that in the exercise of that power he should strive to
satisfy his desires and needs with the least exertion; it also
suggests the power of establishing an order for his security, not only
with regard to his subsistence, but security, also against every
physical and elemental menace against his person. [
Man At The Crossroads, p.42.]
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