The urge to distribute wealth equally, and still more the belief that it can be brought about by political action, is the most dangerous of all popular emotions. It is the legitimation of envy, of all the deadly sins the one which a stable society based on consensus should fear the most. The monster state […]
Paul Johnson Quotes
The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
If we look at the ravages which Communist politics… inflicted on those areas where they were allowed full play – the sheer destruction of resources… the obliteration of morality and truth-telling, the contempt for life, the ubiquitous corruption, the long-term poverty – we have to count as an immeasurable blessing that Marxism took over only […]
All civilizations are born to die. Those fortunate enough to live in one should study the past to learn from its errors, and with the wisdom of hindsight strive to keep at bay for a while the drifting sands of decay.
The quest for novelty is the essence of capitalist endeavour, as it is of all human progress, and the appetite for adventure is a sharper spur than cupidity. Those who pillory capitalism for “creating artificial needs” strike me as timid and dismal souls. You might just as well denounce Monet for creating an “artificial need” […]
Anyone who travels to every part of the United States, as I do, becomes aware that the notion of America oppressing humanity is absurd. To a great extent, America is humanity.
In the 1770’s surveying the immensity and diversity of London, Dr. Samuel Johnson laid down: “Sir, a man who is tired of London is tired of life.” The saying could be rephrased today. A man who hates America hates humanity.
