Charles Kingsley Quotes

I might not be a good socialist, any more than I'm a good Christian, but I am one.

I swear by Christ---the greatest socialist in history.

What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged.

I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a Communist.

A policy of humanity; a policy not of party, sect or creed; but of justice, of reason and mercy

I believe in the Corporal Works of Mercy, the Ten Commandments, the American Declaration of Independence and James Connolly’s outline of a socialist society… Most of my life I’ve been called a lunatic because I believe that I am my brother’s keeper. I organize poor and exploited workers, I fight for the civil rights of minorities, and I believe in peace. It appears to have become old-fashioned to make social commitments — to want a world free of war, poverty and disease. This is my religion

Workers! Leave the Socialist Party. It is your enemy and ours.

There is within man an ethical feeling ... telling us that in our economic life as well as elsewhere we must seek to promote the welfare of our neighbor and brother.

I wonder what she [his grandmother Queen Victoria] would have thought of a Labor Government?

I contend that true Socialism is religion; that honest, fervent politics are religion; that whatever a man will labour for earnestly and in some measure unselfishly is religion

The socialist labor party of Germany endeavors by every lawful means to bring about a free state and a socialistic society, to effect the destruction of the iron law of wages by doing away with the system of wage labor, to abolish exploitation of every kind, and to extinguish all social and political inequality.

In the service of the people we followed such a policy that socialism would not lose its human face.

Of late I have felt, with increasing intensity, the injustice inflicted on women by our present laws. The Party is largely my own child and I cannot part from it lightly, or without pain; but at the same time I cannot sever myself from the principles I hold. If it is necessary for me to separate myself from what has been my life's work, I do so in order to remove the stigma resting upon our wives, mothers and sisters of being accounted unfit for citizenship

We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth

It is right to be forward in the defense of the poor; no system that is not just as between rich and poor can hope to survive.

THE IRISH PEOPLE TO THE WORLD History bears testimony to the intensity of our sufferings …. Our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields—against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our blood and theirs. Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause…. Avenge yourselves…. Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic

Since Mill, in 1848, wrote his chapter on the future of the working classes, the question of the distribution of wealth has be-come of still greater importance. We cannot look round on the political phenomena of to-day without seeing that this question is at the root of them. We see the perplexity in which men stand, and the divisions springing up in our great political parties, because of the uncertainty of politicians how to grapple with it.

When this coronavirus crisis is over, what kind of society will we be? A more important question is what kind of society do we want to be?

Jesus' life and words are a challenge at the same time that they are Good News. They are a challenge to those of us who are poor and oppressed. By His life He is calling us to give ourselves to others, to sacrifice for those who suffer, to share our lives with our brothers and sisters who are also oppressed. He is calling us to "hunger and thirst after justice" in the same way that we hunger and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning into practice.

Other human beings have a right to peace and happiness that is equal to our own; therefore we have a responsibility to help those in need.

This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good ... for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for neighbors.

To live with Jesus is to live with the poor. To live with the poor is to live with Jesus.

When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him.