Francesco Saverio Nitti Quotes

Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paolo Nitti was an Italian economist and political figure. A Radical, he served as Prime Minister of Italy between 1919 and 1920.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia , Nitti was a staunch critic of English economist Thomas Robert Malthus and his Principle of Population. He was an important meridionalist and studied the origins of Southern Italian problems that arose after Italian unification. Wikipedia  

✵ 19. July 1868 – 20. February 1953
Francesco Saverio Nitti photo
Francesco Saverio Nitti: 3   quotes 0   likes

Famous Francesco Saverio Nitti Quotes

“The poverty-stricken rural population rose up against their despoilers; they burnt down the castles of the nobles, and swore that they would leave nothing to be seen upon the land but the cabins of the poor. The rich middle-class seemed at first to side with them, and at Strasburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm the peasants were encouraged, aided, and provided for. However, the bourgeoisie soon grew alarmed at the spreading of the insurrection, and made common cause with the nobles in smothering the revolt in the rural districts. Luther, who was then at the apex of his power, condemned the rising in the name of religion, and proclaimed the servitude of the people as holy and legitimate. "You seek," wrote he, "to free your persons and your goods. You desire the power and the goods of this earth. You will suffer no wrong. The Gospel, on the contrary, has no care for such things, and makes exterior life consist in suffering, supporting injustice, the cross, patience, and contempt of life, as of all the things of this world. To suffer! To suffer! The cross! The cross! Behold what Christ teaches!" Were not these teachings, given in the name of the faith to a famishing people in revolt against the tyranny and avidity of the ruling aristocracy, fatal to the future of the peasant masses, whose very sufferings were thus legitimised in the name of the religion that should have come to their aid?”

Source: Catholic Socialism (1895), p. 75

Similar authors

Elinor Ostrom photo
Elinor Ostrom 4
American political economist
Kenneth Arrow photo
Kenneth Arrow 37
American economist
Pier Paolo Pasolini photo
Pier Paolo Pasolini 3
Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual
Paul A. Samuelson photo
Paul A. Samuelson 47
American economist
Ludwig von Mises photo
Ludwig von Mises 62
austrian economist
Amartya Sen photo
Amartya Sen 31
Indian economist
Herbert A. Simon photo
Herbert A. Simon 58
American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and p…
Gunnar Myrdal photo
Gunnar Myrdal 26
Swedish economist
Jan Tinbergen photo
Jan Tinbergen 21
Dutch economist
Paul Krugman photo
Paul Krugman 106
American economist