Quotes about capitalism

"Making capitalism out of socialism is like making eggs out of an omelet."

Bakatin, Vadim on capitalism   

"Fact is Our Lord knew all about the power of money: He gave capitalism a tiny niche in His scheme of things, He gave it a chance, He even provided a first installment of funds. Can you beat that? It's so magnificent. God despises nothing. After all, if the deal had come off, Judas would probably have endowed sanatoriums, hospitals, public libraries or laboratories."

Bernanos, Georges on capitalism   

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell."

Borman, Frank on capitalism
4 fans of this quote   

"The most eloquent eulogy of capitalism was made by its greatest enemy. Marx is only anti-capitalist in so far as capitalism is out of date."

Camus, Albert on capitalism   

"Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century."

Chomsky, Noam on capitalism   

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Churchill, Winston on capitalism
10 fans of this quote   

"History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition."

Friedman, Milton on capitalism   

"Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed."

Gandhi, Mahatma on capitalism   

"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."

George, Henry on capitalism   

"The unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism."

Heath, Edward on capitalism   

"Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country."

Hoffer, Eric on capitalism   

"The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods."

Keynes, John Maynard on capitalism   

"The genius of capitalism consists precisely in its lack of morality. Unless he is rich enough to hire his own choir, a capitalist is a fellow who, by definition, can ill afford to believe in anything other than the doctrine of the bottom line. Deprive a capitalist of his God-given right to lie and cheat and steal, and the poor sap stands a better than even chance of becoming one of the abominable wards of the state from whose grimy fingers the Reagan Administration hopes to snatch the ark of democracy."

Lapham, Lewis H. on capitalism   

"Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps."

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich on capitalism   

"In the democratic western countries so-called capitalism leads a saturnalia of freedom, like a bastard brother of reform."

Lewis, Wyndham on capitalism   

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people."

Lincoln, Abraham on capitalism   

"They hold that labor is prior to, and independent of, capital; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed; that labor can exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior – greatly the superior – of capital. They do not deny that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital."

Lincoln, Abraham on capitalism   

"It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It's only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely."

Malcolm X on capitalism
3 fans of this quote   

"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."

Marx, Karl on capitalism   

"Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs."

Marx, Karl on capitalism   

"Capitalism is an art form, an Apollonian fabrication to rival nature. It is hypocritical for feminists and intellectuals to enjoy the pleasures and conveniences of capitalism while sneering at it. Everyone born into capitalism has incurred a debt to it. Give Caesar his due."

Paglia, Camille on capitalism   

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."

Russell, Bertrand on capitalism   

"The evolution of the capitalist style of life could be easily -- and perhaps most tellingly -- described in terms of the genesis of the modern Lounge Suit."

Schumpeter, Joseph A. on capitalism   

"Capitalism inevitably and by virtue of the very logic of its civilization creates, educates and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest."

Schumpeter, Joseph A. on capitalism   

"The far right seeks to retain the material progress of American capitalism while removing some of its crucial causes and consequences -- as though a bridge could be made to change part of its function by blowing up part of its supports and part of its exit."

Segal, Ronald on capitalism   

"The ideology of capitalism makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty -- of the indefinite expansion of possibility."

Sontag, Susan on capitalism   

"The first rule of venture capitalism should be Shoot the Inventor."

Storey, Sir Richard on capitalism   

"Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor."

Webster, Daniel on capitalism   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"What breaks capitalism, all that will ever break capitalism, is capitalists. The faster they run the more strain on their heart."

Williams, Raymond on capitalism   

"The call for free markets would be more successful if it came from more sympathetic people."

Kocher, Gerhard on capitalism