Edward Bellamy Quotes

In America there are none poor, and none even that can be called peasants. Each citizen has some property, and all citizens have the same rights as the richest individual, or landed proprietor, in the country.

In order to have economic democracy you have to have equal access to property.

Every Man a King, Every Man a King; For you can be a millionaire; There's Something belonging to others; There's enough for all people to share.

It is important that there be a uniform, equal citizenry, evenly distributed over the various provinces of the island, and free from extremes in wealth and poverty. His intention, as he phrases it, is “not completely to destroy private property, since this is impossible, but to enclose it within more narrow boundaries, to give it a measure, a rule, a bridle which restrains it, which directs it, which subdues it, and always keeps it subordinate to the public good.

I don't subscribe to the view that people who are better off don't want to live in a more equal society.

Money is the great equalizer.

We don't want to hurt anybody, kill anybody, build any prisons, or build police. We want to make it unnecessary for people to steal - so they'll have access to medical care, health care, decent housing, all people, all over the world. As long as you don't share your resources, you are going to have trouble

I know we will create a society where there are no rich or poor, no people without work or beauty in their lives, where money itself will disappear, where we shall all be brothers and sisters, where every one will have enough.

It is not the possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalized.

The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society - we are on the eve of universal change.

real freedom is not a matter of the shifting of advantage from one sex to the other or from one class to another. Real freedom means the disappearance of advantage, and primarily of economic advantage.

And with respect to the mode in which these general principles affect the secure possession of property, so far am I from invalidating such security, that the whole gist of these papers will be found ultimately to aim at an extension in its range; and whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.

There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.

The form of law which I propose would be as follows: In a state which is desirous of being saved from the greatest of all plagues-not faction, but rather distraction-there should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor, again, excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil . . . Now the legislator should determine what is to be the limit of poverty or of wealth.

If you take from the most wealthy and give to the least wealthy, it's good. It tries to balance out.

If there is neither excessive wealth nor immoderate poverty in a nation, then justice may be said to prevail.

A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

As long as there's anybody that's poor or middle class, there will not be satisfaction that there are rich people. Not 'til we get rid of all the rich can we say we have finished the job.

We have to focus on how do we ensure the economy works for everybody, and not just a few.

I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society.

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.

We need to have an economy that works for everybody, not just people on the top.

Equal wealth and equal opportunities of culture have simply made us all members of one class.

While an equality of rights under a limited government is possible and an essential condition of individual freedom, a claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it.