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Liberalism Quotes by Hilaire Belloc

41 Liberalism quotes by Hilaire Belloc

All Liberalism quotes Hilaire Belloc’s page

Hilaire Belloc warns that political freedom means little without economic freedom. He points out that large banks control credit and shape industry, while smaller people lack true power. He also argues that even if wealth is shared, true happiness still depends on inner contentment.

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The machine does not control the mind of man, though it affects the mind of man; it is the mind of man…

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We cannot make owners by merely giving men something to own. And, I repeat, whether there be sufficient desire for property left…

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Protest against Industrial Capitalism from one aspect or another is universal: so was the protest against the condition of European religion at…

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The Reformation has been called in a biting epigram "a rising of the rich against the poor."

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The restoration of property would be a complicated, arduous and presumably a lengthy business; the transformation of a Capitalist Society into a…

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... But as a Godless greed pursued its career from excess to excess, it provoked a sort of twin hostile brother, equally…

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The larger unit can borrow more easily in proportion than the smaller. It can especially tap bank credit more easily and bank…

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When the mass of men are dispossessed - own nothing - they become wholly dependent upon the owners; and when those owners…

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The larger the unit of capital present, the easier the transaction called emission of credit. Centralized lending of this kind (which is…

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In the midst of all these innumerable forms of a common protest and universal ill-ease there has grown up one definite body…

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Under the old philosophy which had governed the high Middle Ages things had been everywhere towards a condition of Society in which…

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The term "Socialism" becomes a common label for the various theories of attack upon the principle of property, the various policies of…

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But if we are to retain freedom, then we can only do so by keeping the determining mass of the citizens the…

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The old freedom sufficiently survives in the mind of the wage earner to give him the illusion that, while accepting insurance and…

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The terror in which English capitalists now stand of organized proletarian resistance gives to the naturally protected craft organizations the power to…

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But though Usury is in itself immoral, and justly condemned by every ethical code, its chief and worst defect in the particular…

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Wherever the Industrial system has reached its second generation it is threatened by two mortal perils. The first is the demand by…

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Capitalism had arisen through the misuse and exaggeration of certain rights, notably the right of property - the basis of economic freedom…

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In the same way the eminence attaching to the mere possession of great wealth disappoints us nine times out of ten, especially…

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The worship of the nation has been able to make men tolerate under its authority what they could never have tolerated from…

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Consider in what way the industrial system developed upon capitalist lines. Why were a few rich men put with such ease into…

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Political freedom without economic freedom is almost worthless, and it is because the modern proletariat has the one kind of freedom without…

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The smaller man approaching our modern banking system, which controls all issue of credit and therefore pretty well all our industrial and…

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Slowly but certainly the proletarian, by every political reform which secures his well-being under new rules of insurance, of State control in…

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To control the production of wealth is to control human life itself. To refuse man the opportunity for the production of wealth…

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It is therefore our business to restore economic freedom through the restoration of the only institution under which it flourishes, which institution…

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We may not say to the poor: "You have a right to fight the rich merely because they are rich and in…

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Had there been any existent vital and energetic institution left in Society after the Reformation for the use of small property in…

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Even if the wealth and power be well distributed throughout a community, its members will not be happy unless they are inwardly…

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The very large units of production and exchange have access to credit on a large scale, sometimes without any cover at all,…

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One man in one mood will attack Industrial Capitalism for its destruction of beauty; another for its incompetence; another for the vileness…

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Since it is to the advantage of the wage-payer to pay as little as possible, even well-paid labor will have no more…

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Under the old social philosophy which had governed the Middle Ages, temporal, and therefore all economic, activities were referred to an eternal…

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Let us then repeat and firmly fix this main point: the evil, the root evil, of that to which the term Capitalism…

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When the mass of families in a State are without property, then those who were once citizens become virtually slaves. The more…

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Economic freedom is in our eyes a good. It is among the highest of temporal goods because it is necessary to the…

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Communism worked honestly by officials devoid of human frailties and devoted to nothing but the good of its slaves, would have certain…

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In the form of security and sufficiency for the men who labor to the profit of others, and in the form of…

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Ownership by delegation is a contradiction in terms. When men say, for instance (by a false metaphor), that each member of the…

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It is Mind which determines the change of Society, and it was because the mind at work was a Catholic mind that…

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More by Hilaire Belloc

All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men.

Kings live in Palaces, and Pigs in sties, And youth in Expectation. Youth is wise.

Communism worked honestly by officials devoid of human frailties and devoted to nothing but the good of its slaves, would have certain manifest material…

I put my pencil upon the paper, doubtfully, and drew little lines, considering my theme. But I would not long hesitate in this manner,…

Had there been any existent vital and energetic institution left in Society after the Reformation for the use of small property in coordinated form-that…

Before the curse of statistics fell upon mankind we lived a happy, innocent life, full of merriment and go and informed by fairly good…

Of old when folk lay sick and sorely tried The doctors gave them physic, and they died. But here's a happier age: for now…

It is Mind which determines the change of Society, and it was because the mind at work was a Catholic mind that the slave…

For no one, in our long decline,So dusty, spiteful and divided,Had quite such pleasant friends as mine,Or loved them half as much as I…

The smaller man approaching our modern banking system, which controls all issue of credit and therefore pretty well all our industrial and commercial activities,…

Under the old philosophy which had governed the high Middle Ages things had been everywhere towards a condition of Society in which property was…

Torture will give a dozen pence or more To keep a drab from bawling at his door. The public taste is quite a different…

Of courtesy, it is much less Than courage of heart or holiness, Yet in my walks it seems to me That the Grace of…

The very large units of production and exchange have access to credit on a large scale, sometimes without any cover at all, merely upon…

The terror in which English capitalists now stand of organized proletarian resistance gives to the naturally protected craft organizations the power to receive the…