“The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.”
Section 115
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
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Eric Hoffer240
American philosopher 1898–1983Related quotes
Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher
Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1961), p. 96
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Source: Discipline and Punish (1977), pp. 13, Chapter One The Body of the Condemned
“Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others.”
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John Hospers (1918–2011) American philosopher and politician
Source: Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow, (1971), p. 13
“Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Speech to Conservative Central Council ("The Historic Choice") (20 March 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102990 <br class="br">Leader of the Opposition <br class="br">Context: There are others who warn not only of the threat from without, but of something more insidious, not readily perceived, not always deliberate, something that is happening here at home. What are they pointing to? They are pointing to the steady and remorseless expansion of the Socialist State. Now none of us would claim that the majority of Socialists are inspired by other than humanitarian and well-meaning ideals. At the same time few would, I think, deny today that they have made a monster that they can't control. Increasingly, inexorably, the State the Socialists have created is becoming more random in the economic and social justice it seeks to dispense, more suffocating in its effect on human aspirations and initiative, more politically selective in its defence of the rights of its citizens, more gargantuan in its appetite—and more disastrously incompetent in its performance. Above all, it poses a growing threat, however unintentional, to the freedom of this country, for there is no freedom where the State totally controls the economy. Personal freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. You can't have one without the other. You can't lose one without losing the other.
Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)