William Graham Sumner

We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could.

Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare.

The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.

If you ever live in a country run by a committee, be on the committee.

What we prepare for is what we shall get.

There ought to be no laws to guarantee property against the folly of its possessors.

The great hinderance to the development of this continent has lain in the lack of capital.

Joint-stock companies are yet in their infancy, and incorporated capital, instead of being a thing which can be overturned, is a thing which is becoming more and more indispensable.

There is every indication that we are to see new developments of the power of aggregated capital to serve civilization, and that the new developments will be made right here in America.

The aggregation of large fortunes is not at all a thing to be regretted.

Men of routine or men who can do what they are told are not hard to find; but men who can think and plan and tell the routine men what to do are very rare.

Then, again, the ability to organize and conduct industrial, commercial, or financial enterprises is rare; the great captains of industry are as rare as great generals.

Any one who believes that any great enterprise of an industrial character can be started without labor must have little experience of life.

Moreover, there is an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence, around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and prosperous society.

Perhaps they do not recognize themselves, for a rich man is even harder to define than a poor one.

One thing must be granted to the rich: they are goodnatured.

I never have known a man of ordinary common-sense who did not urge upon his sons, from earliest childhood, doctrines of economy and the practice of accumulation.

Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves.

It is often said that the earth belongs to the race, as if raw land was a boon, or gift.

Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work.