A society which reverences the attainment of riches as the supreme felicity will naturally be disposed to regard the poor as damned ... if only to justify itself for making their life a hell. — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
It is not till it is discovered that high individual incomes will not purchase the mass of mankind immunity from cholera, typhus, and ignorance, still less secure them the positive advantages of educational opportunity and economic security, that slowly and reluctantly, amid prophecies of moral degeneration and economic disaster, society begins to make collective provision for needs which no ordinary… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share
Private property is a necessary institution, at least in a fallen world; men work more and dispute less when goods are private than when… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
Clever men are impressed in their differences from their fellows. Wise men are conscious of their resemblance to them. — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
Too often, contemning the external order as unspiritual, [the Puritan] has made it, and ultimately himself, less spiritual by reason of his contempt. — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
A reasonable estimate of economic organisation must allow for the fact that, unless industry is to be paralysed by recurrent revolts on the part… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
Virtues are often conquered by vices, but their rout is most complete when it is inflicted by other virtues, more militant, more efficient, or… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
The characteristic virtue of Englishmen is power of sustained practical activity and their characteristic vice a reluctance to test the quality of that activity… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
It is probable that democracy owes more to nonconformity than to any other single movement. — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
By a kind of happy pre-established harmony, such as a later age discovered between the needs of society and the self-interest of the individual,… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
“Granted, I should love my neighbor as myself, the questions which, under modern conditions of large-scale organization, remain for solution are, ''Who precisely is… — R. H. Tawney Copy Share Image
![“Too often, contemning the external order as unspiritual, [the Puritan] has made it, and ultimately himself, less spiritual by reason of his contempt.” quote by R. H. Tawney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/09a/r-h-tawney-25650_contempt_too-often-contemning-the-external-order_429571.jpg)
