Natural capitalism is not about making sudden changes, uprooting institutions, or fomenting upheaval for a new social order. Natural capitalism is about making small, critical choices that can tip economic and social factors in positive ways.
—Paul Hawken (b.1946) American Environmentalist
The evolution of the capitalist style of life could be easily—and perhaps most tellingly—described in terms of the genesis of the modern Lounge Suit.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
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
While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
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
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
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
With the exception of capitalism, there is nothing so revolting as revolution
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
What kind of society isn’t structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist
Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.
—Alan Greenspan (b.1926) American Economist
Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I believe totally in a Capitalist System, I only wish that someone would try it.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
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
The ideology of capitalism makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty—of the indefinite expansion of possibility.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
The most eloquent eulogy of capitalism was made by its greatest enemy. Marx is only anti-capitalist in so far as capitalism is out of date.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
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
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
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The call for free markets would be more successful if it came from more sympathetic people.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
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
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
Fascism is capitalism plus murder.
—Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American Novelist
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
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
The dynamics of capitalism is postponement of enjoyment to the constantly postponed future.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher