Henry George was an American economist, social philosopher, and political economist who was best known for his book "Progress and Poverty". He was a strong advocate of the Georgist economic philosophy, which is based on the belief that people should own the value they produce themselves, and the economic value derived from land should belong equally to all members of society. His ideas had a major influence on the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
What is the most famous quote by Henry George ?
What protectionism teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.
— Henry George
What can you learn from Henry George (Life Lessons)
- Henry George taught that the power of the market should be used to benefit society as a whole, not just the wealthy few. He argued that the wealth created by land should be shared by all, not just the privileged few.
- He also believed that economic progress should be achieved through the collective effort of society, rather than through individual wealth accumulation.
- Finally, Henry George argued that true economic progress comes from encouraging innovation, creativity, and hard work, rather than relying on luck or privilege.
The most floundering Henry George quotes that are life-changing and eye-opening
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various Henry George inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Henry George.
There are only three ways by which any individual can get wealth — by work, by gift or by theft. And, clearly, the reason why the workers get so little is that the beggars and thieves get so much.
Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism.
Blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations seek to prevent their enemies from trading; protective tariffs are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their own people from trading. What protectionism teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.
That which is unjust can really profit no one; that which is just can really harm no one.
Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting;
by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.
Let no man imagine that he has no influence.
Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.
No person, I think, ever saw a herd of buffalo, of which a few were fat and the great majority lean. No person ever saw a flock of birds, of which two or three were swimming in grease, and the others all skin and bone.
Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.
Land value tax quotes by Henry George
The protection of the masses has in all times been the pretense of tyranny - the plea of monarchy, of aristocracy, of special privilege of every kind. The slave owners justified slavery as protecting the slaves.
The fundamental principle of human action, the law, that is to political economy what the law of gravitation is to physics is that men seek to gratify their desires with the least exertion
There can be to the ownership of anything no rightful title which is not derived from the title of the producer and does not rest upon the natural right of the man to himself.
one sex of voice in public matters, and that we could in no way so increase the attention , the intelligence and the devotion which may be brought to the solution of social problems as by enfranchising our women .
Charity is false, futile, and poisonous when offered as a substitute for justice.
Private ownership of land is the nether mill-stone.
Material progress is the upper mill-stone. Between them, with an increasing pressure, the working classes are being ground.
The state, it cannot too often be repeated, does nothing, and can give nothing, which it does not take from somebody.
Poverty is the openmouthed relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. And it is hell enough.
For as labor cannot produce without the use of land, the denial of the equal right to the use of land is necessarily the denial of the labor to its own produce.
So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.
No theory is too false, no fable too absurd, no superstition too degrading for acceptance when it has become embedded in common belief. Men will submit themselves to torture and to death, mothers will immolate [burn] their children at the bidding of beliefs they thus accept.
As Mazzini said ... it is around the standard of duty rather than around the standard of self-interest that men must rally to win the rights of man. And herein may we see the deep philosophy of Him who bade men love their neighbors as themselves. In that spirit, and in no other, is the power to solve social problems and carry civilization onward.
Capital is a result of labor, and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force, and labor is therefore the employer of capital.
He who by an exertion of mind or body, adds to the aggregate of enjoyable wealth, increases the sum of human knowledge, or gives to human life higher elevation or greater fullness - he is, in the larger meaning of the words, a " producer," a " working man," a " laborer," and is honestly earning honest wages.
Whence shall come the new barbarians? Go through the squalid quarters of great cities, and you may see, even now, their gathering hordes! How shall learning perish? Men will cease to read, and books will kindle fires and be turned into cartridges.
The value of a thing is the amount of laboring or work that its possession will save the possessor.
That amid our highest civilization men faint and die with want is not due to the niggardliness of nature, but to the injustice of man.
Everybody works but the vacant lot
I do not think that any sorrow of youth or manhood equalled in intensity or duration the black and hopeless misery which followed the wrench of transference from a happy home to a school.
The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.
The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive;
its organization is necessarily tyrannical.
God showers upon us his gifts-more than enough for all;
But like swine scrambling for food, we tread them in the mire, and rend each other.
Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.
It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly.
For every social wrong there must be a remedy.
But the remedy can be nothing less than the abolition of the wrong.
The word capital, as philologists trace it, comes down to us from a time when wealth was estimated in cattle, and a man's income depended upon the number of head he could keep for their increase.
If you would have the slave show the virtues of the freeman, you must first make him free.
Unless there be correct thought, there cannot be any action, and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.
Compare society to a boat. Her progress through the water will not depend upon the exertion of her crew, but upon the exertion devoted to propelling her. This will be lessened by any expenditure of force in fighting among themselves, or in pulling in different directions.
Social progress makes the well-being of all more and more the business of each.
Whoever becomes imbued with a noble idea kindles a flame from which other torches are lit, and influences those with whom he comes in contact, be they few or many. How far that influence, thus perpetuated, may extend, it is not given to him here to see.
Abolish all taxation save that upon land values.
My primary object is to defend and advance a principle in which I see the only possible relief from much that enthralls and degrades and distorts, turning light to darkness and good to evil, rather than to gage a philosopher or weigh a philosophy. Yet the examination I propose must lead to a decisive judgment upon both.
The people themselves must think, because the people alone can act.
Let no man imagine that he has no influence.
As man is so constituted that it is utterly impossible for him to attain happiness save by seeking the happiness of others, so does it seem to be of the nature of things that individuals and classes can obtain their own just rights only by struggling for the rights of others.
Passing into higher forms of desire, that which slumbered in the plant, and fitfully stirred in the beast, awakes in the man.
I am firmly convinced, as I have already said, that to effect any great social improvement, it is sympathy rather than self-interest, the sense of duty rather than the desire for self-advancement, that must be appealed to. Envy is akin to admiration, and it is the admiration that the rich and powerful excite which secures the perpetuation of aristocracies.
It is as to whether its services or uses are to be exchanged or not which makes a tool an article of capital or merely an article of wealth. Thus, the lathe of a manufacturer used in making things which are to be exchanged is capital, while the lathe kept by a gentleman for his own amusement is not.
I propose to beg no question to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead.
As it becomes more and more difficult to get land, so will the virtual enslavement of the laboring-classe s go on. As the value of land rises, more and more of the earnings of labor will be demanded for the use of land, until finally nothing is left to laborers but the wages of slavery -- a bare living.