23 September 2010

Great Quotes from this weeks Reading

Here are some pretty wonderful quotes from my readings. Not sure what to think of them yet, but they jumped off the page at me.

"There is no device whatever to be incented for securing hapiness without industry, economy, and virtue"

"What folly it is to think that vice and passion are limited by classes, that liberty consists only in taking power away from nobles and priests and giving it to artisans and peasants and that these latter will never abuse it!"

Sumner, "Forgotten Man"

This guy is a real proto-Rand. Has just as much passion, and the ideals are similar. Maybe doesn't romanticize as much as she. There is something here that resonates deep within me... A conservative take on the foundations of Classical Liberalism... A Libertarian almost. It is consistent though, with the traditional under-valuing of the "shiftless", and reflects a lack of understanding about the untapped capabilities of the destitute, who may be a victim of social systems instead of the villiam of economics. A market of free contract is all well and good, in theory, but when your thesis rests on "equally applied liberty" in a culture of racism, sexism, generalization and assumption, rational contracts may not be truly based on skill and ethic. There is something to be said about this theory, but perhaps, like all theories, it is faulty when applied.

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