SOCIALISM QUOTES II

quotations about socialism

Socialism quote

Tell me this, if socialism actually is implemented, what do you expect to get, what is going to happen, are you going to get money, a house, a car, what do you hope for? Or are you simply hoping that the rich will be brought down to the level of the poor?

NO OHNO

"A Reply to: Capitalism has failed the world: Socialism is the viable alternative", News24, August 10, 2017


Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism.
Fools making laws for the breaking of jaws
And the sound of the keys as they clink
But there's no time to think.

BOB DYLAN

"No Time to Think"


People came from far and near
To buy poison and tears
The decor was delectable
The service impeccable
It was expensive -- what isn't?
It sold black plague and socialism
There was no reason to exist
If you weren't on the mailing list

FUTURE BIBLE HEROES

"Death Opened a Boutique"


But whenever one meets modern thinkers (as one often does) progressing towards a madhouse, one always finds, on inquiry, that they have just had a splendid escape from another madhouse. Thus, hundreds of people become Socialists, not because they have tried Socialism and found it nice, but because they have tried Individualism and found it nasty.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Alarms and Discursions

Tags: G. K. Chesterton


Socialism can only arrive by bicycle.

JOSE ANTONIO VIERA GALLO

foreword, Energy and Equity


As we know, socialism is calculational chaos. Rational appraisement and allocation are eternally elusive. It is a gigantic negative-sum game in which each player quickly grabs a piece of the pie, and all the while the pie shrinks before the players' eyes.

LARRY J. SECHREST

Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture at the Austrian Scholars Conference in Auburn, Alabama, "The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate", March 15, 2008


A little socialism
Don't scare me one bit!
We could do a whole lot worse
Than Europe or Canada.

LEN CHANDLER

"Which Side Are You On? (Civil Rights Version)"


Stripped down to its essence, and returned to its roots, socialism is an ideology of radical democracy. In an era when liberties are under attack, it seeks to empower civil society to allow participation in the decisions that affect our lives. A huge state bureaucracy, of course, can be just as alienating and undemocratic as corporate boardrooms, so we need to think hard about the new forms that social ownership could take.

BHASKAR SUNKARA

"Socialism's Future May Be Its Past", New York Times, June 26, 2017


The right still denounces socialism as an economic system that will lead to misery and privation, but with less emphasis on the political authoritarianism that often went hand in hand with socialism in power. This may be because elites today do not have democratic rights at the forefront of their minds -- perhaps because they know that the societies they run are hard to justify on those terms.

BHASKAR SUNKARA

"Socialism's Future May Be Its Past", New York Times, June 26, 2017


In my opinion, nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country.

GEORGE ORWELL

preface to the Ukrainian edition, Animal Farm


We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system! And with my inclination to practical action it seems obvious to me that we have to put a better, more just, more moral system in its place, one which, as it were, has arms and legs and better arms and legs than the present one!

GREGOR STRASSER

"Thoughts about the Tasks of the Future", June 15, 1926


Here in Jacksonville there's a road called Commonwealth Blvd., and today as I was driving on it, I realized how socialist the name sounds.

JAROD KINTZ

This Book Has No Title


If Socialism is a legitimate form of government, why have not the forces of government evolved it? The age of experiment has long since passed. We have had repetition over and over again, but no materialization of Socialism. Government is purely human, and until there is a new creation there will never be anything new in government.

JOHN CALHOUN TUTT

attributed, Why I Am Opposed to Socialism


Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean--power over people, power to the State.

MARGARET THATCHER

speech to Conservative Central Council, March 15, 1986

Tags: Margaret Thatcher


There is an old joke about socialism as the synthesis of the highest achievements of the whole human history to date: from prehistoric societies it took primitivism; from the Ancient world it took slavery; from medieval society brutal domination; from capitalism exploitation; and from socialism the name.

SLAVOJ ZIZEK

Revolution at the Gates: Zizek on Lenin

Tags: Slavoj Zizek


I am opposed to Socialism because I believe that it attempts to do by legislative enactment, what must come through an evolutionary process. I believe that we are now ready for a long evolutionary jump, but not so far forward as some of our Socialist brethren would like to jump. I desire to go as far toward human justice and good will toward men, as anyone, but I do not feel that we should start and stop, because we are not ready to go the whole distance. I would start and go but one day's journey at a time.

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

attributed, Why I Am Opposed to Socialism


Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

speech at l'assemblée constituante, September 12, 1848

Tags: Alexis de Tocqueville


Socialism is a political vision of religious and moral import, whereas capitalism is a self-regulating system, deploying a means-end rationality. The two are in different orders of reality.

CHARLES DAVIS

"The End of Socialism?", After Socialism?: The Future of Radical Christianity


Real socialism is inside man. It wasn't born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can't say it is finished.

DARIO FO

London Times, April 6, 1992

Tags: Dario Fo


Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.

EARL WARREN

Address to National Press Club in Washington DC, April 1953