Capitalism inevitably and by virtue of the very logic of its civilization creates, educates and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
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
The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
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 ideology of capitalism makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty—of the indefinite expansion of possibility.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
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
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
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
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
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
Our alternative is either to stick to a moral tradition which we haven
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist
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 Internet will help achieve “friction free capitalism” by putting buyer and seller in direct contact and providing more information to both about each other.
—Bill Gates (b.1955) American Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Author
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
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 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
While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, 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
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
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
With the exception of capitalism, there is nothing so revolting as revolution
—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
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
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
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
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
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
The dynamics of capitalism is postponement of enjoyment to the constantly postponed future.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher
Fascism is capitalism plus murder.
—Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American Novelist
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
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
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
I’m afraid for all those who’ll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It s an invention of civilization.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) Soviet Head of State
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
I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.
—Sidney Hook (1902–89) American Social Philosopher, Educationalist
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
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
Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden.
—Orson Scott Card (b.1951) American Author
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
There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
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
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 call for free markets would be more successful if it came from more sympathetic people.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
Fact is Our Lord knew all about the power of money: He gave capitalism a tiny niche in His scheme of things, He gave it a chance, He even provided a first installment of funds. Can you beat that? It’s so magnificent. God despises nothing. After all, if the deal had come off, Judas would probably have endowed sanatoriums, hospitals, public libraries or laboratories.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Author
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
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
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