A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their… — 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
