Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Capitalism

The call for free markets would be more successful if it came from more sympathetic people.
Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist

There is but one means available to improve the material conditions of mankind: to accelerate the growth of capital accumulated as against the growth in population. The greater the amount of capital invested per head of the worker, the more and better goods can be produced and consumed. This is what capitalism, the much abused profit system, has brought about and brings about daily anew. Yet, most present-day governments and political parties are eager to destroy this system.
Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) Austrian Economist, Philosopher, Author

In civilized society man stands at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons… . Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest… . Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.
George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author

Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer

It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.
Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader

The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn’t deliver the goods.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist

The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It s an invention of civilization.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) Soviet Head of State

The corporation is the “master”, the employee is the “servant”. Because the corporation owns the means of production without which the employee could not make a living, the employee needs the corporation more than vice versa.
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women.
Christopher Hampton (b.1946) British Playwright, Screenwriter

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist

Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century.
Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic

Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright

And while the law of ‘competition’ may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist

Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader

The capitalist engine is first and last an engine of mass production which unavoidably also means production for the masses… . It is the cheap cloth, the cheap cotton and rayon fabric, boots, motorcars and so on that are the typical achievements of capitalist production, and not as a rule improvements that would mean much to the rich man. Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within reach of factory girls.
Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist

A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, unites in his own person the three different characters, of landlord, farmer, and labourer. His produce, therefore, should pay him the rent of the first, the profit of the second, and the wages of the third.
George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author

I believe totally in a Capitalist System, I only wish that someone would try it.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher

The ideology of capitalism makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty—of the indefinite expansion of possibility.
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher

Capital is a result of labor, and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force, and labor is therefore the employer of capital.
Henry George (1839–97) American Political Economist, Journalist

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist

While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist

In the democratic western countries, so-called capitalism leads a saturnalia of “freedom,” like a bastard brother of reform.
Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic

Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist

When all the world is socialist, Switzerland will have to remain capitalist, so that it can tell us the price of everything.
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State

Capitalism is our only moral system. All other systems take advantage of man’s rights and liberties.
Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher

Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist

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