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Every man and woman in societ...

Every man and woman in society has one big duty. That is, to take care of his or her own self. This is a social duty. For, fortunately, the matter stands so that the duty of making the best of one's self individually is not a separate thing from the duty of filling one's place in society, but the two are one, and the latter is accomplished when the former is done

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

If you live in a country run ...

If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

The Forgotten Man is delving ...

The Forgotten Man is delving away in patient industry, supporting his family, paying his taxes, casting his vote, supporting the church and the school, reading his newspaper, and cheering for the politician of his admiration, but he is the only one for whom there is no provision in the great scramble and the big divide. Such is the Forgotten Man. He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays — yes, above all, he pays.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

The State, it cannot be too o...

The State, it cannot be too often repeated, does nothing and can give nothing which it does not take from somebody. The Forgotten Man works and votes -generally he prays-but his chief business in life is to pay.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

Whatever capital you divert t...

Whatever capital you divert to the support of a shiftless and good-for-nothing person is so much diverted from some other employment, and that means from somebody else. I would spend any conceivable amount of zeal and eloquence if I possessed it to try to make people grasp this idea. Capital is force. If it goes one way it cannot go another. If you give a loaf to a pauper you cannot give the same loaf to a laborer. Now this other man who would have got it but for the charitable sentiment which bestowed it on a worthless member of society is the Forgotten Man.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

For A to sit down and think, ...

For A to sit down and think, What shall I do? is commonplace; but to think what B ought to do is interesting, romantic, moral, self-flattering, and public-spirited all at once. It satisfies a great number of human weaknesses at once. To go on and plan what a whole class of people ought to do is to feel one's self a power on earth, to win a public position, to clothe one's self in dignity. Hence we have an unlimited supply of reformers, philanthropists, humanitarians, and would-be managers-in-general of society.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

I have lived through the best...

I have lived through the best years of this country's history. The next generations are going to see war and social calamities. I am glad I don't have to live on into them.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

If any student of social scie...

If any student of social science comes to appreciate the case of the Forgotten Man, he will become an unflinching advocate of strict scientific thinking in sociology, and a hard-hearted skeptic as regards any scheme of social amelioration. He will always want to know, Who and where is the Forgotten Man in this case, who will have to pay for it all?

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

Yet we are constantly annoyed...

Yet we are constantly annoyed, and the legislatures are kept constantly busy, by the people who have made up their minds that it is wise and conducive to happiness to live in a certain way, and who want to compel everybody else to live in their way.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

Nine-tenths of our measures f...

Nine-tenths of our measures for preventing vice are really protective towards it, because they ward off the penalty.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

If you want war, nourish a do...

If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

We throw all our attention on ...

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 121 quotes

Nine-tenths of our measures fo...

Nine-tenths of our measures for preventing vice are really protective towards it, because they ward off the penalty.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

The truth is that cupidity, se...

The truth is that cupidity, selfishness, envy, malice, lust, vindictiveness, are constant vices of human nature.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

But we have inherited a vast n...

But we have inherited a vast number of social ills which never came from Nature. They are the complicated products of all the tinkering, muddling, and blundering of social doctors in the past.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

The taxing power is especially...

The taxing power is especially something after which the reformer's finger always itches.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

If any student of social scien...

If any student of social science comes to appreciate the case of the Forgotten Man, he will become an unflinching advocate of strict scientific thinking in sociology, and a hard-hearted skeptic as regards any scheme of social amelioration. He will always want to know, Who and where is the Forgotten Man in this case, who will have to pay for it all?

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

The type and formula of most s...

The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. . . . I call C the Forgotten Man.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

Here we are, then, once more b...

Here we are, then, once more back at the old doctrine - Laissez faire. Let us translate it into blunt English, and it will read, Mind your own business. It is nothing but the doctrine of liberty. Let every man be happy in his own way.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

There is no device whatever to...

There is no device whatever to be invented for securing happiness without industry, economy, and virtue.

William Graham Sumner 121 quotes

Добрые, щедрые, великодушные: 6 советских актеров, которые были всеобщими любимчиками

23

Советских актёров часто ставят в пример как образец духовной силы, национальной гордости и внутренней красоты. Они стали символами эпохи, носителями культуры и нравственности. Но, как известно, за кул...

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