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"If you ever live in a country run by a committee, be on the committee."
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Explore more quotes by William Graham Sumner
"Furthermore, the unearned increment from land appears in the United States as a gain to the first comers, who have here laid the foundations of a new State."
"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."
"Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves."
"Moreover, there is an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence, around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and prosperous society."
"It is a beneficent incident of the ownership of land that a pioneer who reduces it to use, and helps to lay the foundations of a new State, finds a profit in the increasing value of land as the new State grows up."
"Undoubtedly there are, in connection with each of these things, cases of fraud, swindling, and other financial crimes; that is to say, the greed and selfishness of men are perpetual."
"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."
"Any one who believes that any great enterprise of an industrial character can be started without labor must have little experience of life."
"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."
Exlpore more Governance quotes
"One obvious palliative of the evils of democracy in its present form would be to encourage much more publicity and initiative on the part of civil servants. They ought to have the right, and, on occasion, the duty, to frame Bills in their own names, and set forth publicly the arguments in their favor."
"Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government."
"In our country, only what is talked about is seen as reform. If it isn't talked about, it isn't seen as reform. It shows our ignorance. My mantra is reform to transform, and I say in my government - Reform, Perform and Transform."
"An assembly is extra slow in taking actions."
"If a country complains that they don't have good leaders, those leaders are only as a result of the prevailing value system that every citizen of that country has been exposed to."
"Always remember: When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves."
"Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are."
"Either cry for exchanging new currency notes for couple of days or crib for corruption for ages and generations with old one. Choice is yours."
"When some claim demarcation and "regulation, others fancy "deregulation, preferring foxes guarding the henhouse or chicken yards with free chickens and free foxes. Friend or foe, hen or fox, anyone can have a go. ['This far']"
"Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders."
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