Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Quotes

The capitalists … were better than the communists and learning from history, because they never bought into any single, sacrosanct, and therefore unchallenged theory of history.

The wild open-market theory that died in 1929 had a run of just over thirty years. Communism, a complete melding of religious, economic, and global theories, stretched to seventy years in Russia and forty-five years in central Europe, thanks precisely to the intensive use of military and police force.

The reason socialism has failed around the world every time it's been tried is because people in socialist countries have looked at the United States and have said if they can have it that good, we can. It's a failed, flawed ideology, but if you ask socialists why it's always failed, it's because the United States has stood in the way.

Some communist countries think that free enterprise will save them the same way that they thought communism would save them.

Individualism is to collectivism as capitalism is to socialism

A basic contradiction between socialism and the market economy does not exist.

I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

Socialism and freedom are not compatible, regardless of repeated convincings.

Socialism ruins societies because it misunderstands human nature.

Capitalism works. In the end, socialism imploded on itself. Communism imploded on itself. Ultimately jihadism will implode on itself, if we stay in the fight and stay on offense because failed philosophies don't work, there's no future.

Less than seventy-five years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won.

Every time I say the word capitalism, everyone just assumes I have plenty of Marxism in me, I do. But Russia and China had their bloody revolutions and even while they were Communist, they had the same idea about generating wealth - tear it out of the bowels of the earth. And now they have come out with the same idea in the end... you know, capitalism. But capitalism will fail, too.

I think that the future belongs to democracy, but not to capitalism, because they are opposite camps.

Capitalism is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of Socialism or Communism.

Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don't give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution.

What if capitalism is unsustainable, and socialism is impossible?

There is no freedom without groceries. There are no groceries without freedom. What people call 'capitalism' and 'socialism' are actually one and inseparable. It's a virtuous circle.

From a systematic standpoint, I think that capitalism is the best system. I can spend a lot of time explaining why I like communism, but it is actually not a good solution. Nor is socialism. So, capitalism is the right model.

First of all, I am not an expert on matters on different economic systems, but in my normal social intercourse with my friends we discussed matters like that.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

Now a great debate has been born. The thesis is Democratic Socialism. The antithesis is free-market capitalism. The Obama Democrats have posed the challenge. It is now up to the Republicans to pick it up and fight along these lines.

I'm not a communist, of course. But I do think that everything is down to economics. Capitalism doesn't change.

Liberal capitalism is not perfect, but compared to the other 'isms,' it's far superior.

No one should suffer from the great delusion that any form of communism or socialism which promotes the dictatorship of the few instead of the initiative of the millions can produce a happier or more prosperous society.

Neither Capitalism nor Socialism can pretend to be an ideology. They are merely methods for dividing ownership and income.