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It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair.
Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will lead to Individualism.
the man who is poor is in himself absolutely of no importance. He is merely the infinitesimal atom of a force that, so far from regarding him, crushes him: indeed, prefers him crushed, as in that case he is far more obedient.
Misery and poverty are so absolutely degrading, and exercise such a paralysing effect over the nature of men, that no class is ever really conscious of its own suffering.
Slavery was put down in America, not in consequence of any action on the part of the slaves, or even any express desire on their part that they should be free. It was put down entirely through the grossly illegal conduct of certain agitators in Boston and elsewhere,
true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is.
With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. That is the misery of being poor.
the more punishment is inflicted the more crime is produced,
The State is to make what is useful. The individual is to make what is beautiful.
There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all,
At present machinery competes against man. Under proper conditions machinery will serve man.
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
An individual who has to make things for the use of others, and with reference to their wants and their wishes, does not work with interest, and consequently cannot put into his work what is best in him.
Art is the most intense mode of Individualism
Art should never try to be popular.
In the case of the novel and the drama, arts in which the public do take an interest, the result of the exercise of popular authority has been absolutely ridiculous.
The public dislike novelty because they are afraid of it.
Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.
A fresh mode of Beauty is absolutely distasteful to them, and whenever it appears they get so angry, and bewildered
It comes from the natural inability of a community corrupted by authority to understand or appreciate Individualism.
The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.
The private lives of men and women should not be told to the public.
For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.
A practical scheme is either a scheme that is already in existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under existing conditions. But it is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to;
All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable.
It has been pointed out that one of the results of the extraordinary tyranny of authority is that words are absolutely distorted from their proper and simple meaning,
The evolution of man is slow. The injustice of men is great.