Tag: capitalism

The Greatest Winston Churchill Quotes

Posted on October 3, 2011 by

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

There is no such thing as a good tax.

Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.

If you are going to go through hell, keep going.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

A sheep in sheep’s clothing. (On Clement Atlee)

A modest man, who has much to be modest about. (On Clement Atlee)

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
-“The Sinews of Peace” speech, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1945

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour!”

John Maynard Keynes Quotes

Posted on January 12, 2011January 15, 2011 by

– “A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.”
– “Americans are apt to be unduly interested in discovering what average opinion believes average opinion to be.”
– “By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”
– “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”
– “Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.”

– “For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.”

– “I do not know which makes a man more conservative – to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.”

– “I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.”

– “Ideas shape the course of history.”

– “If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.”

– “In the long run we are all dead.”

– “It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.”

– “It would not be foolish to contemplate the possibility of a far greater progress still.”

– “Like Odysseus, the President looked wiser when he was seated.”

– “Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.”

– “Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.”

– “Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own.”

– “Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.”

– “The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.”

Fidel Castro Quotes

Posted on January 10, 2011January 10, 2011 by

– “A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”
– “A revolution is not a bed of roses.”
– “Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.”
– “How can we help President Obama?”
– “I am a Marxist Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life.”
– “I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.”
– “I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement.”
– “I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.”

– “I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating… because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition.”

– “I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.”

– “I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.”

– “I would not vote for the mayor. It’s not just because he didn’t invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.”

– “Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.”

– “More than 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger; and 790 million of them live in the Third World.”

– “No thieves, no traitors, no interventionists! This time the revolution is for real!”

– “North Americans don’t understand… that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.”

– “The revenues of Cuban state-run companies are used exclusively for the benefit of the people, to whom they belong.”

– “The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.”

– “The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs.”

– “They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?”

Winston Churchill Quotes

Posted on November 1, 2010November 1, 2010 by

If you are going through hell, keep going.

Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk.
Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober.

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.

The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.

To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

I am prepared to meet my maker; whether my maker is prepared to meet me is entirely another matter.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.’ We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940).

Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war. To Neville Chamberlain in the House of Commons, after the Munich accords (1938).

We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes. (1940-10-21)