There is no boon in nature. All the blessings we enjoy are the fruits of labor, toil, self-denial, and study. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share Image
It is often said that the earth belongs to the race, as if raw land was a boon, or gift. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share Image
The great force for forging a society into a solid mass has always been war. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
“Can anyone imagine that the masterfulness, the overbearing disposition, the greed of gain, and the ruthlessness in methods, which are the faults of the… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
The waste of capital, in proportion to the total capital, in this country between 1800 and 1850, in the attempts which were made to… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
Who is the Forgotten Man? He is the clean, quiet, virtuous, domestic citizen, who pays his debts and his taxes and is never heard… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its 'debt' in… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
The taxing power is especially something after which the reformer's finger always itches. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
Whatever capital you divert to the support of a shiftless and good-for-nothing person is so much diverted from some other employment, and that means… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
The yearning after equality [in economic outcome] is the offspring of envy and covetousness, and there is no possible plan for satisfying that yearning… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
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… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
Before the tribunal of nature, a man has no more right to life than a rattlesnake; he has no more right to liberty than… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
The millionaires are a product of natural selection ... the naturally selected agents of society for certain work. They get high wages and live… — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
Perhaps they do not recognize themselves, for a rich man is even harder to define than a poor one. — William Graham Sumner Copy Share
