Felix Adler Quotes

Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.

What it missing, I think, is this notion of the common good.

Upon the principles of reason, the good of many is preferable to the good of a few or of one; a lasting good is to be preferred before a temporary, the public before the private.

I'm one of those people that thinks the world changes in smaller and in more mysterious ways than a lot of people like to think. A lot of traditional charities and organizations do things that on the surface seem like a good idea, but it doesn't change the way that people think about interacting with other people.

There are certain public needs that outweigh private interests.

It's time to put back on the agenda the importance of public ownership and public good, the value of working together collaboratively, not in competition.

In the back of my mind, always, is the firmly held belief that public policies must serve the long-term interests and well-being of the community at large.

We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.

Many of you are well enough off that the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.

Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly ever of the public interest.

A country is not a business and a government should stand for much more than economic efficiency.

The only public good is that which assures the private good of the citizens.

The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good.

The role of government is to protect the public health.

The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment to those excluded from the appropriation.

The public interest is more than the sum total of the interest groups.

We need government to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities....In all that the people can individually do for themselves, government ought not interfere.

Governments are not normally concerned with the welfare of the people they govern.

Get people to think about the benefits of government rather than taxes.

Private interests must be made subservient to the general interests of the community

The real world is somebody is going to win; somebody is going to lose. There are costs to everything, but if you make the long term investment which is investment in education, public health and infrastructure, then we will have a better world.

The supreme inspiration is the common weal.

That’s the function of government—to do for people what they cannot do for themselves.

When you're going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.