“The farmers may be the backbone of the country, but who wants to be a backbone?”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
"Mr. Icky"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), Ch. 1, "The Cyclone"
“The farmers may be the backbone of the country, but who wants to be a backbone?”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
"Mr. Icky"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. I ask nothing of the nation except that it so behave as each farmer here behaves with reference to his own children. That farmer is a poor creature who skins the land and leaves it worthless to his children. The farmer is a good farmer who, having enabled the land to support himself and to provide for the education of his children, leaves it to them a little better than he found it himself. I believe the same thing of a nation.
Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster
Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, “The Truth about Communism” https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051180423&view=1up&seq=5 (1948), p. 12
Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1843/feb/17/distress-of-the-country-adjourned-debate in the House of Commons (17 February 1843). <br class="br">1840s
Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 9.
“Our farmers round, well pleased with constant gain,
Like other farmers, flourish and complain.”
George Crabbe (1754–1832) English poet, surgeon, and clergyman
The Parish Register (1807), Part 1: "Baptisms", line 273.
Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets
Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 10, “While I Was Musing the Fire Burned” (p. 113)
Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.
[On the Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and the Future of the Family Farm, 36, 37, Nelson, Willie, Fulcrum Publishing, 2007, 9781555916244]
“The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) British political economist, broker and politician
Source: The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1821) (Third Edition), Chapter VI, On Profits, p. 73
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India
Inagural Speech at the 25th National Convention of the Bharat Krishak Samaj, Hyderabad, 15 February 1988. Transcript at [Selected Speeches and Writings: 1 January 1988-31 December 1988, 1989, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 180
Source: Quote, Memorable Quotes from Rajiv Gandhi and on Rajiv Gandhid in Memorable Quotes from Rajiv Gandhi and on Rajiv Gandhi, 2009, Concept Publishing Company, 978-81-8069-587-2, 25, https://books.google.com/books?id=L5bTCgLM1lYC&pg=PT25