Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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.

The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.

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

I don't like a lot of social programs either because it makes you non-productive.

It's not good for government to tell people that the world owes them a living and that things are free.

Personal accountability and responsibility is dying. Long live the Democrat welfare state.

If Americans are reluctant to go on the dole that's because they have a healthy work ethic.

If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

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.

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

Communism has ... made people [Russian workers] very lazy.

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

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.

I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything.

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

In their zeal to show compassion, liberal community activists are quick to offer government handouts and, in the process, convey the message that people are incapable of making it on their own.

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.

Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves. Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.

There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.

Mama was a country woman with a whole lot of common sense. She understood what most of our neighbors didn't - that I shouldn't grow dependent on anyone except myself. 'One of these days, I ain't gonna be here,' she kept hammering inside my head.

Black Americans, no more than white Americans, they do not want more government programs which perpetuate dependency. They don't want to be a colony in a nation.

I'll always continue to work. I've never much depended on anyone but myself, as far as that goes.

The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'

Some people feel that the world owes them a living.