Leo Tolstoy Quotes

The more is given, the less the people will work for themselves

A lot of people have a sense-of-entitlement mentality that somebody else ought to do these things for them. People are mad at the government for not getting jobs for them. I don't understand why it's the government's responsibility.

Giving to the individual societal benefits such as free medical care breeds idleness, causing breakdown in the relationship with God.

Recipients of transfers tend to become less self-reliant and more dependent on government payments. When people can get support without exercising their own abilities to discover and respond to opportunities for earning income, those abilities atrophy. People forget - or never learn in the first place - how to help themselves, and eventually some of them simply accept their helplessness.

Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers. Let social busybodies and professional "public morals experts" in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.

There's good and bad in every arena. It's funny, some people, the reason they're in the underground is because they're lazy and don't make things happen for themselves.

I always hustled to make money and pay for school. I was never afraid of hard work.

It's very disincentivizing to have others take care of your needs.

As far as I was concerned, the Depression was an ill wind that blew some good. If it hadn't occurred, my parents would have given me my college education. As it was, I had to scrabble for it.

The only method by which people can be supported is out of the effort of those who are earning their own way. We must not create a deterrent to hard work.

I was raised to want to work for a living. The idea of just sitting around or going shopping every day appalls me.

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

We are told, over and over: "Get off welfare. Cut the umbilical cord to the Government." But when we try and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we're slapped back down.

Unemployed people are spoiled

Last year in the United States alone over $98 billion was distributed in unearned government transfer payments and other aid to millions of men and women who most often did nothing for what they received. This character-weakening government dole is repeated in almost every nation of the world. We encourage Latter-day Saints everywhere to remain free of government assistance. Work for what you receive.

We don’t want to turn this [social] safety net into a hammock that ends up lulling people in their lives into dependency and complacency.

I'm not the kind of guy who wants to basically collect money and do nothing.

Sometimes well-intentioned programs can lead to dependency and cause us to forget we have what it takes to attain the American dream.

I saw how hard my parents worked, and I didn't want to be a freeloader.

Neoliberalism is vulnerable. When it comes to talking about social provisions, the only argument they have is the argument of barbarians: that social provisions make people dependent, and dependency is an evil, and people have to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. And that is such bullshit that it boggles my mind.

You have people like Sarah Jessica Parker - and it's also because of her mother and where she came from and all that stuff - but how you're taught to be responsible for yourself rather than endlessly people waiting for you and bringing you things.

I understand that people might be poor if they don't have any work, but I don't accept that someone is poor if they've worked really hard.

There is no use whatsoever in trying to help people who do not help themselves.

I'm not lazy, but I don't have that spur on my ass that most people have, like, "Oh, god. I have to get something out or else my career will be over!" I don't really care if my career is over.

That's the only way we're going to get through these programs. That is true compassion. Having people become dependent on others is not compassion at all.