16 Quotes & Sayings By Henry George

Henry George was a leading American economist and philosopher. He is best known for "Progress and Poverty", a book he wrote in 1879, which is an explanation of economic inequality and the social conditions that cause it. In this book, Henry George outlined his theory of economic rent, whereby land owners receive a price that is greater than its current use value from their land. This surplus, which he calls "economic rent", may accrue from artificially low prices for the resources used to create land value Read more

Through this process, land owners receive more income than they would if they had to pay market prices for their resources.

1
Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism. Henry George
2
Capital is a result of labor and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force and labor is therefore the employer of capital. Henry George
3
There is danger in reckless change but greater danger in blind conservatism. Henry George
4
The state it cannot too often be repeated does nothing and can give nothing which it does not take from somebody. Henry George
5
Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed the only animal that is never satisfied. Henry George
6
For as labor cannot produce without the use of land the denial of the equal right to use of land is necessarily the denial of the right of labor to its own produce. Henry George
7
That amid our highest civilization men faint and die with want is not due to the niggardliness of nature but to the injustice of man. Henry George
8
So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes to increase luxury and make sharper the contest between the House of Have and the House of Want progress is not real and cannot be permanent. Henry George
9
There can be to the ownership of anything no rightful title which is not derived from the title of the producer and does not rest upon the natural right of the man to himself. Henry George
10
The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air - it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world and others no right. Henry George
11
The man who gives me employment which I must have or suffer that man is my master let me call him what I will. Henry George
12
It is but a truism that labor is most productive where its wages are largest. Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor the world over. Henry George
13
The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock. Henry George
14
Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power. Henry George
15
He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it. Henry George