Children of the Ghetto (1892), bk. 2, ch. 6.
“If you scratch a Conservative, you find a Fascist.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech to the London Young Liberal Federation in the National Liberal Club (5 January 1925), quoted in John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–1931 (1977), p. 109
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons
“Scratch me and you will find the Nonconformist.”
Austen Chamberlain (1863–1937) British politician
1927. Quoted in Sir Charles Petrie, The Life and Letters of Sir Austen Chamberlain: Vol. II (Cassell, 1940), p. 321.
1920s
“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Variant: Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.
“Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege.”
William Beveridge (1879–1963) Economist and social reformer
As quoted in "Sayings of the Week" in The Observer [London] (17 December 1943)
“The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience.”
David Hare (1947) British writer
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) p. 1.
Misattributed
Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist
Source: The Story of Jesus (1938), Chapter 2
George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism
Source: Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion (1913), p. 36
“It is not enthusiasm, but dogma, that differentiates a Christian from a pagan society.”
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
Source: The Idea of a Christian Society (1939), Ch. IV, p. 59
“Scratch an Englishman and find a Protestant.”
George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan
Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923)
1920s
Arnold Hauser (1892–1978) Hungarian art historian
The Social History of Art, Volume I. From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages, 1999, Chapter IV. The Middle Ages
