QUOTATIONS & WORDS OF WISDOM

The Love Ethic

"Love is the only satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."

-- Erich Fromm, 1956

"...if we love our fellow humans, we cannot limit our insight and our love only to others as individuals...We have to be political people, I would even say passionately involved political people, each of us in the way that best suits our own temperaments, our working lives, and our own capabilities."

-- Erich Fromm, 1986

Change in Government

"The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to alter their constitutions of government."

-- George Washington, 1796, 1st President of the United States

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better."

-- Abraham Lincoln, former President of the United States

"A revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense."

-- John Adams, 1786

Concentration of Wealth

"And when that day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation to the changed conditions."

-- James Madison

The Real Powerholders

"This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer.  It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations."

-- Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. President

"The masters of the government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States."

-- Woodrow Wilson, U.S. President

"Money, not morality, constitutes the principle of commercial nations."

-- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, Vice-President, and Founding Father

Cooperative Sharing of Resources

"God has ordered all things to be produced so that there should be food in common for all, and that the Earth should be the common possession of all. Nature, therefore, has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for a few."

-- St. Ambrose, 4th Century

"There's enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

The Cooperative Society

"You see, my friends...you begin to ask the questions, 'Who owns the oil?' You begin to ask the question, 'Who owns the iron ore?' You begin to ask the question, 'Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?'"

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[the] "...good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If we are going to achieve a real equality, the U.S. will have to adopt a modified form of Socialism."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1965

"The true task is to unite and organize all workers...and it is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves...."

-- Helen Keller

"...the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are beholden to industry. They always will be. And, the American people are fooled when they think that if you can just get McGovern instead of Humphrey, or if you can get a Democrat instead of a Republican, this will be the end of our problems."

. . .

"...this present system by which industry is motivated exclusively by the quest for maximal profits - though it may have helped a great deal to develop, to industrialize our country so rapidly and so successfully - now it's clearly passed its usefulness. It is keeping us from achieving the ideal society that we should have. We say industry must produce to improve the quality of life for all our people."

-- Dr. Benjamin Spock

"The Republicans are 90% corrupt, and the Democrats are 50% corrupt."

-- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaking on the environment, in an August 2004 radio interview, (an almost verbatim paraphrase). See the Environment section of our Issues & Resources page, for details.

The Sense of Possibility

"Some men see the world as it is and say 'Why?'  I see the world as it could be and say, 'Why not?'"

-- Robert Kennedy, former Attorney General of the United States