The Notes (8 page)

T
he real Am. idea is not that every man shall be on a level with every other, but that every man shall have the liberty without hindrance to be what God made him. The office of govt. is not to
confer
happiness but to give men the opp. to work out happiness for themselves.

Edmund Burke on The Threat of Socialism

A
perfect equality will indeed be produced—that is to say equal wretchedness, equal beggary, and on the part of partitioners a woeful, helpless and desperate disappointment. Such is the event of all compulsory equalizations. They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below; they depress high & low together, beneath the level of what was originally the lowest.

Winston Churchill

S
ocialism is the phil. of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

T
he inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings while the inherent virtue of Soc. is the equal sharing of miseries.

On The Labor Party Prog. 1945

I
do not believe in the power of the state to plan & enforce. No matter how numerous are the committees they set up, or the ever growing hordes of officials they employ, or the severity of the punishments they inflict or threaten, they cannot approach the high level of internal economic production achieved under free enterprise. Personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive, corrected by failure & the infinite processes of good housekeeping & personal ingenuity, these constitute the life of a free society. It is this vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the . . .

Woodrow Wilson

A
revolution is taking place which will leave people dependent on govt. Finding mkts. will develop into fixing prices & finding employment. Next step will be to furnish employment or in default pay a bounty or dole. Those who look with apprehension on these tendencies do not lack humanity but are influenced by the belief that the result of such measures will be to deprive the people of character & liberty.

L
iberty has never come
from
govt. The hist. of liberty is the hist. of limitation of govt. power not the increase of it.

Thomas Macaulay

O
ur rulers will best promote the improvement of the people by confining themselves to their own legit. duties—by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry & intelligence their natural reward, idleness & folly their natural punishment; by diminishing the price of law, by maintaining peace, by defending property & observing strict economy in every dept. of the state. Let govt. do this—the people will assuredly do the rest.

Daniel Webster

H
old on my friends to the Constitution of the United States of America & to the Repub. for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster. What has happened once in 6000 yrs. may never happen again. Hold on to your const. for if the const. shall fall there will be anarchy throughout the world.

George Bernard Shaw

S
ocialism means equality of inc. or nothing. Under Soc. you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught & employed whether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had no character or industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner, but while you were permitted to live you would have to live well.

Frederic Bastiat Addressing Nat. Assembly—France, 12/12/1849

H
eavy govt. expenditures and liberty are incompatible. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state. Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity—all vanish.

Calvin Coolidge, William & Mary, May 15, 1926