James Cook Quotations | Page 2

The thing that distinguishes permanent poverty is bad character.

It's a vain hope to believe that people will voluntarily turn their back on government subsidies.

Government employees move up the ladder through educational credentials rather than merit. People are given jobs and promotions based on seniority, race and gender rather than ability or talent. Such a system often overlooks the deserving and rewards the incompetent. There is no payoff for achievement.

Government is full of people who think they know what's best for others and can rationalize compelling them to accept it.

Social welfare is the most corrosive behavioral force ever unleashed by man.

When wildlife damages agriculture we eliminate the wildlife. Rather we should eliminate agriculture when it damages wildlife.

People are always receptive to the idea of a conspiracy.

We are far too critical of the fabulous system of plenty that has brought us the highest living standards on earth. The liberals have done a good job of undermining faith in the market system.

People want government to solve problems, but government is often the cause of the problem.

Gasahol is socialism's fuel.

Throughout history government has seldom hesitated from robbing its citizens in a crisis.

The longer people receive economic assistance, the worse their social condition and behavior.

What drives intellectuals and professors crazy is somebody with a high school diploma who made a fortune in business. They agree with Lenin, who thought success in business was a matter of luck, when in reality it is a matter of genius.

When politics is elevated over business, economic disaster follows.

The more money spent by government to address social injustice the greater the cries of social injustice.

Animosity towards the merchant class has been around for centuries. Why? The goal of making a profit is quite obviously a self-serving motive. Other occupations, while equally self-serving, are better able to hide their motives.

Once trapped in the belief that you are a victim, you surrender your birthright to compete for the prizes of life.

Nothing's worse than a business person who sells out to the left, if you're a capitalist, stand up and be counted.

The only time you can have maximum economic progress is when social programs don't exist.

When people criticize the free market, they are usually complaining about what happens when you intervene in the free market.

The idea that government can instruct private enterprise on how to eliminate waste is preposterous.

The rate of inflation can't be judged accurately by a few items the government arbitrarily chooses to measure.

Those who think profit is a dirty word should try to make one.

The fundamental laws of human nature are overlooked by social planners.

Let one state in the U.S. be free of government and overnight you would have an economic powerhouse.

Government does the least good and the most harm through subsidies.

To be a good manager of people requires both fairness and bluntness.

Private charity can apply 'tough love' but government charity can't.

There are only two questions about government. How much do you want? How much can you stand?

The economy that leads the world will be the one with the most millionaires and billionaires.

There is a reason and not a reason for everything.

The welfare system is the breeding ground of crime, addiction and radical politics.

Socialism is the triumph of people's prejudices over their reason.

Bureaucracy by its nature resists change and nullifies progress.

Nations that embrace the free market to the greatest extent prosper the most.

The eleventh commandment: Thou shalt be tolerant of all paths that lead to God.

Suffering perfects the soul.

In any given age it is only a few extremists who are right.

Struggle is the architect of the soul.

Government is no more than taxpayers hiring the most inefficient organization to do the job.

Any nation that allows the government to dominate its monetary and economic policies will ultimately suffer grave consequences.

Easier will always win out over harder.

When you are aggrieved you learn.

Knaves will come and knaves will go.

Our contemporary brand of socialism has one fatal flaw. It's too expensive. When you try to shower benefits on so many recipients, you eventually must resort to subterfuge. Foremost among those tricks is money and credit expansion. Inevitably, you debase your currency.

You cannot rectify grievances from the past with today's charity.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, including government guarantees.

Taking money from job creating entrepreneurs and giving it to ever-failing government programs has to be the ultimate in economic illiteracy.

The left controls the media, the institutions of higher learning and the government. They preach against business, disparate merit, decry free enterprise and slander capitalism.

It's nearly impossible for a criminal to come from a good mother.

Subsidies have changed the way the nation behaves.

The government is worst which governs most.

The foremost corporate responsibility is to serve others so well you produce a profit.

Everybody lives an epic.

The higher the wages the fewer the jobs; the lower the wages the more the jobs.

Liberals have one solution for every economic issue; eat the seed corn.

Advice from others is always filtered through self interest.

That which you worry about most in life is seldom bad, and that likely applies to dying.

A single charitable foundation started by one capitalist does more good than a world full of socialists and leftists. Think Carnegie and his libraries, or Sloan and Kettering their hospital, or Gates in Africa.

To succeed in business, put the interest of the customer ahead of your own.

The more noteworthy a person's achievements, the more government agents are attracted to investigating that person.

You can't think in sound bytes.

There is no help from without, only from within.

We should worry about our own souls first and trust in God's plan for others.

To write about business one should be in business, just as in writing about Tasmania one should visit Tasmania.

Good times weaken belief.

Young atheists abound, but old atheists are rare.

It's not capitalism that's failing the U.S. but socialism.

The government endangers us with our own money.

Suffering over something is proof positive of its importance.

Going without a thing enhances the desire to get it.

Nothing is more difficult than to make a profit.

No matter how great your wisdom, you can still make a fool of yourself.

Whatever you do without confidence will be done badly.

Winning a lottery may prove to be bad luck.

Give persons who would cheat you every opportunity so you can soon be rid of them.

There are alternate explanations for everything.

Liberals believe and inexhaustible fund exists that can be tapped endlessly to pay for government social programs. Tax the rich and give it to a long line of moochers, pork barrel hustlers and ne'er-do-wells. These funds would otherwise have been employed as additional capital indispensable to economic progress.

Government is not using modern technology so much to modernize and improve services as it is to regulate, punish, collect taxes and keep an eye on us. They'd rather rule than serve.

Nobody heeds danger when they're making money.

People rarely use advice.

When your mind tries to verify a preconceived notion you can miss the obvious.

Seeds sewn in adversity bear the greatest fruit.

The decline and fall of a civilization is barely noticed by most of its citizens.

Beware the person who is on a hot streak.

Faith must be worked at.

All the warnings the founding fathers gave us about government proved to be true. We should have listened.

With socialized medicine, the trick is not to die while waiting for treatment.

Incompetent government embraces hiring quotas, thus furthering their incompetence.

Without memory there are no worries.

If everyone had to start up their own business, socialism would soon die.

The more welfare, the more crime.

The reason our economic crisis has been forestalled is the reason there will be an economic crisis.

Welfare corrupts the lower class much faster than the middle class.

Socialism was made to order for tyrants.

At the very least, people who get subsidies should have to get up in the morning and do something, even if it's a make work job. But most liberals would oppose even this simple test of responsibility.

Investors believe in the best possible outcome.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then liberalism is a form of insanity.

Inequality promotes progress.

The liberal agenda is the blueprint for national ruin.