“If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment.”

— Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"

“When everybody owns everything, nobody takes care of anything.”

— Aristotle Ἀριστοτέλης 382 – 322 BCE

— Mencius 孟子 372 – 289 BCE via Daniel K. Gardner
(Mengzi)
from Book of Mencius 孟子

“Prisoners to the world of objects, they are pressed down and crushed by fashion, the market, events, public opinion… never do they recover their right mind.”

— Chuang Tzu 莊周 369 – 286 BCE via Thomas Merton
(Zhuangzi)

from Zhuangzi

11. Appreciating Emptiness

“He would sell even his share of the sun.”

— Anonymous 1
Freedom from the narrow boxes defined by personal history
from Italian proverb

“Man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.”

— Anonymous 1
Freedom from the narrow boxes defined by personal history

“Corporations have neither bodies to be kicked, nor souls to be damned.”

— Anonymous 1 via A. Schlesinger, Jr.
Freedom from the narrow boxes defined by personal history

“One beats the bush, another catches the bird.”

— Anonymous 1
Freedom from the narrow boxes defined by personal history
from German proverb

“Every modern society seems to me to be nothing but a conspiracy of the rich, who while protesting their interest in the common good pursue their own interests and stop at no trick and deception to secure their ill-gotten possessions, to pay as little as possible for the labor that produces their wealth and so force its makers to accept the nearest thing to nothing. They contrive rules for securing and assuring these tidy profits for the rich in the name of the common good, including of course the poor, and call them laws!”

— Thomas More 1478 – 1535 CE
from Utopia

“competitiveness and desire for power are the beginnings of beckoning disaster in business and social relations.”

— Liu Yiming 刘一明 1734 – 1821 CE via Thomas Cleary
(Liu I-ming)
from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

9. Know When to Stop

“The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte 1769 – 1821 CE

“Labor does not have to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the air of labor... If you divorce capital from labor, capital is hoarded, and labor starves.”

— Daniel Webster 1782 – 1852 CE
America's greatest orator
from Speech, 1824

“Capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people.”

— Abraham Lincoln 1809 – 1865 CE
from Illinois Legislature, 1837

“What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.”

— Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862 CE
Father of environmentalism and America's first yogi

“There is nothing—not even crime—more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.”

— Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862 CE
Father of environmentalism and America's first yogi

“Capitalism will kill competition.”

— Karl Marx 1818 – 1883 CE

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.”

— John Ruskin 1819 – 1900 CE

“Here lies your iniquity: you have given the laborer nothing but his daily food—not even his lodgings… his wages—thanks to your competitive system—were beaten down to the minimum on which he could or would work, without the hope or the possibility of saving a farthing.”

— Charles Kingsley 1819 – 1875 CE
Founder of Christian Socialism in England
from Alton Locke, 1848​

“In a community regulated by laws of demand and supply... those who become rich are—generally speaking—industrious, resolute, proud, covetous, prompt, methodical, sensible, unimaginative, insensitive, and ignorant.”

— John Ruskin 1819 – 1900 CE
from Ad Valorem

“But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.”

— Leo Tolstoy 1828 – 1910 CE
from Anna Karenina

“God laughs again when two brothers divide their land with a string, saying to each other, 'This side is mine and that side is yours.' He laughs and says to Himself, 'The whole universe belongs to Me, but they say they own this portion or that portion.'”

— Ramakrishna 1836 – 1886 CE

“Everyone lives by selling something.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894 CE

“Honest education is dangerous to tyranny and privilege: systems like the capitalist one use both ignorance and education as underpinnings for general faith in themselves as rulers.”

— George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950 CE via Shan Dao
UK playwright second only to Shakespeare
from Everbody's Political What's What?

“Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.”

— George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950 CE
UK playwright second only to Shakespeare
from Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism

“Rockefeller and his associates did not build the Standard Oil Co. in the board rooms of Wall Street banks. They fought their way to control by rebate and drawback, bribe and blackmail, espionage and price cutting, by ruthless efficiency of organization.”

— Ida Tarbell 1857 – 1944 CE

“As long as politics is the shadow of big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.”

— John Dewey 1859 – 1952 CE
The "Second Confucius"

“I could see that the Wasichus [white man] did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.”

— Black Elk 1863 – 1950 CE
(Heȟáka Sápa)

75. Greed

“Because of poverty, we must adopt the capitalist means of production to develop our resources to get rich. However, if we ignore the issue of social justice at the beginning of China's industrialization, we will sow the seeds of class warfare in the future.”

— Sun Yat-sen 孙逸仙 1866 – 1925 CE

“The world wept and still is weeping and blind with tears and blood. For there began to rise in America in 1876 a new capitalism and a new enslavement of labor.”

— W. E. B. Du Bois 1868 – 1963 CE
from Black Reconstruction

“the most extraordinary characteristic of current America is the attempt to reduce life to buying and selling…All life is production for profit, and for what is profit but for buying and selling again?”

— W. E. B. Du Bois 1868 – 1963 CE

“It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”

— Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970 CE
“20th century Voltaire”

“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.”

— Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970 CE
“20th century Voltaire”

“Trade brings men into contact with tribal customs different from their own, and in so doing destroys the dogmatism of the untravelled.”

— Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970 CE
“20th century Voltaire”
from Unpopular Essays

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

— Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965 CE

“Where modern Industrialism prevails... commerce settles on every tree and there must be felt continual anxiety about a bare subsistence; the victim of Industry must confine his thoughts to the subject of tomorrow's food for himself and his family”

— Ananda Coomaraswamy குமாரசுவாமி 1877 – 1947 CE
Perennial philosophy's Citizen of the World
from The Dance of Shiva (1918)

“The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda.”

— Martin Buber מרטין בובר‎‎ 1878 – 1965 CE

38. Fruit Over Flowers

“The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational systems suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.”

— Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955 CE
from Monthly Review, 1949

“Since the creation of heaven and earth, men have been eating each other. I have been living in a place where for 4000 years they have been eating human flesh… But if you will just change your ways immediately, then everyone will have peace.”

— Lǔ Xùn 鲁迅 1881 – 1936 CE via Marxist Internet Archive
(Zhou Shuren; Lusin)
Insightful satirist representing the "Literature of Revolt"

from A Madman's Diary

“Man at his best loves the pick of words that tell the truth, the fair profit of able dealings.”

— Witter Bynner 1881 – 1968 CE
(Emanuel Morgan)

“Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”

— John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946 CE
Revolutionary economist credited with saving capitalism

“Nineteenth-century capitalism has demoralized humanity... impoverished the ethical consciousness of man.”

— Ortega y Gassett, José 1883 – 1955 CE
Spanish philosopher, historian, and essayist

“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”

— John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946 CE
Revolutionary economist credited with saving capitalism

“Socialism inserted itself into capitalism without destroying it... The architects of the welfare state recognized the virtues of capitalism: they perceived the creative stimulus that had been given to invention, enterprise, production, and commerce by the freedom in the laissez-faire governments”

— Will Durant 1885 – 1981 CE
Philosophy apostle and popularizer of history's lessons
from Fallen Leaves

“The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.”

— Will (and Ariel) Durant 1885 – 1981 CE
from Lessons of History

“But our exciting capitalism is showing dangerous defects. It is poisoning our air, our waters, perhaps even our food. It has been killing the fish in our streams and seas and the birds in the sky. It has been using at a reckless rate the mineral resources of our soil.”

— Will Durant 1885 – 1981 CE
Philosophy apostle and popularizer of history's lessons
from Fallen Leaves

“Above all, [capitalism] seems by its very nature to stimulate repeated concentrations of wealth, leading to contractions of purchasing power and to depressions... Repeatedly in history, this natural concentration of wealth has led to a pathological, almost cancerous condition.”

— Will Durant 1885 – 1981 CE
Philosophy apostle and popularizer of history's lessons
from Fallen Leaves

“Modern capitalism needs men who co-operate smoothly, and in large numbers; who want to consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated... What is the outcome? Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature.”

— Erich Fromm 1900 – 1980 CE
One of the most powerful voices of his era promoting the true personal freedom beyond social, political, religious, and national belief systems
from Art of Loving

“If you mean by capitalism the God-given right of a few big corporations to make all the decisions that will affect millions of workers and consumers and to exclude everyone else from discussing and examining those decisions, then the unions are threatening capitalism.”

— Max Lerner 1902 – 1992 CE
(Maxwell Alan)
from Actions and Passions, 1945

“there is surely no reason to believe that capitalism, of all social systems, will last for ever. On the contrary, the material conditions of production, and with them, the ways of human life, have never changed so quickly as they have done under capitalism. By changing its own foundations in this way, capitalism is bound to transform itself and to produce a new period in the history of mankind.”

— Karl Popper 1902 – 1994 CE
Major Philosopher of Science
from The Open Society and its Enemies

“The press is the most class-conscious segment of big business, since its stock in trade consists of the legends and folklore of capitalism.”

— Max Lerner 1902 – 1992 CE
(Maxwell Alan)
from St. Louis Post, 1938​

“Whereas socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people, 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them ' I offer you struggle, danger and death,' and—as a result—a whole nation flings itself at his feet.”

— George Orwell 1903 – 1950 CE
English, poet, humanist, apostle of doubt, and powerful political influence
from Politics and the English Language

“…the present consumer society is like a drug addict who, no matter how miserable he may feel, finds it extremely difficult to get off the hook.”

— E. F. Schumacher 1911 – 1977 CE
The “People's Economist”
from Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered

80. A Golden Age

“When producers want to know what the public wants, they graph it as curves. When they want to tell the public what to get, they say it in curves.”

— Marshall McLuhan 1911 – 1980 CE
from The Mechanical Bride, 1951

“The affluent societies of today make such exorbitant demands on the world’s resources, create ecological dangers of such intensity, and produce such a high level of neurosis among their populations, that they cannot possibly serve as a model”

— E. F. Schumacher 1911 – 1977 CE
The “People's Economist”

“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”

— Albert Camus 1913 – 1960 CE

“Let's talk about socialism. I think it's very important to bring back the idea of socialism into the national discussion to where it was at the turn of the [last] century before the Soviet Union gave it a bad name. Socialism had a good name... It had several million people reading socialist newspapers. Socialism basically said, hey, let's have a kinder, gentler society. Let's share things. Let's have an economic system that produces things not because they're profitable for some corporation, but produces things that people need. People should not be retreating from the word socialism because you have to go beyond capitalism.”

— Howard Zinn 1922 – 2010 CE
Historian of the oppressed and defeated

“in that growth of American capitalism—before and after the Civil War—whites as well as blacks were in some sense becoming slaves”

— Howard Zinn 1922 – 2010 CE
Historian of the oppressed and defeated

from A People's History of the United States​

“Show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.”

— Malcolm X الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎‎ 1925 – 1965 CE

“You can't have capitalism without racism.”

— Malcolm X الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎‎ 1925 – 1965 CE

“What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?”

— Allen Ginsberg 1926 – 1997 CE
from Howl

“What we would call capitalism he despised. People read snippets of Adam Smith, the few phrases they teach in school. Everybody reads the first paragraph of The Wealth of Nations where he talks about how wonderful the division of labor is. But not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be. And therefore in any civilized society the government is going to have to take some measures to prevent division of labor from proceeding to its limits.”

— Noam Chomsky 1928 CE –
from Class Warfare (1995)

“So much for capitalism.”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

53. Shameless Thieves

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

“The promoters of the global economy...see nothing odd or difficult about unlimited economic growth or unlimited consumption in a limited world.”

— Wendell Berry 1934 CE –

58. Goals Without Means

“Of all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability. Marxism is concerned with the distribution of wealth on an equal basis and the equitable utilization of the means of production. It is also concerned with the fate of the working classes—that is the majority—as well as with the fate of those who are underprivileged and in need, and Marxism cares about the victims of minority-imposed exploitation. For those reasons the system appeals to me, and it seems fair”

— Dalai Lama XIV Tenzin Gyatso 1935 CE –

“Market capitalism has already become the most successful religion of all time, winning more converts more quickly than any previous belief or value system in human history.”

— David Loy 1947 CE –
from A Buddhist History of the West

“Capitalism, gaudy and greedy, has been inherent in western aesthetics from ancient Egypt on. It is the mysticism and glamour of things, which take on a personality of their own. As an economic system, it is in the Darwinian line of Sade, not Rousseau.”

— Camille Paglia 1947 CE –
Fearless and insightful status quo critic
from Sexual Personae (1990)

“Latter-day capitalism. Like it or not, it’s the society we live in with hybrid styles of morality. It’s the way of the world – philosophy starting to look more and more like business and administration.”

— Haruki Murakami 1949 CE –
from Dance, Dance, Dance

“America is the greatest engine of innovation that has ever existed, and it can't be duplicated anytime soon, because it is the product of a multitude of factors: extreme freedom of thought, an emphasis on independent thinking, a steady immigration of new minds, a risk-taking culture with no stigma attached to trying and failing, a non-corrupt bureaucracy, and financial markets and a venture capital system that are unrivaled at taking new ideas and turning them into global products.”

— Thomas L. Friedman 1953 CE –

“Communism was a great system for making people equally poor - in fact, there was no better system in the world for that than communism. Capitalism made people unequally rich.”

— Thomas L. Friedman 1953 CE –

“The industrial animal factory offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism is capable of in the absence of any moral or regulatory constraint whatsoever”

— Michael Pollan 1955 CE –
Champion for Sustainable Agriculture
from The Omnivore's Dilemma

“It is a strange world that Industry has made. Kind of a seething toxic harbor, opening out on a blue unspoiled ocean. Most people are swimming in it... If people like me would just keep our mouths shut, people like him would never suspect why they got cancer. They’d chalk it up to God or probability. They wouldn't die with hearts full of venom.”

— Neal Stephenson 1959 CE –
(Stephen Bury)
Speculative futurist and cultural social commentator

from Zodiac (1988)​​

“'Robber Barons' who presided over an era of economic freewheeling and corruption that historians have referred to as 'bandit capitalism'... were seize-the-day opportunists who were perfectly prepared to lie, bribe, steal, exploit and bend the rules in order to amass their personal fortunes.”

— Roman Krznaric 1
Practical, popular, modern philosopher

from Carpe Diem Regained (2017)

“Carpe diem was not extinguished by Christianity alone... industrial capitalism... engulfed millions of workers in a more controlled and regimented way of life”

— Roman Krznaric 1
Practical, popular, modern philosopher

from Carpe Diem Regained (2017)

“The capitalist economy and attendant consumerism that dominate First World culture breed a compulsive feeling that we don't have enough, even when our closets are full of everything and anything. That is the effect of half a century of television advertising.”

— Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche ཛི་གར་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ། 1964 CE –
from Minimum Needs and Maximum Contentment

“Over the last few years, Pope Francis has reinvigorated the Catholic Church’s core message with passionate criticism of unbridled capitalism and a new, more progressive worldview.”

— Nina Lvovna Khrushcheva Нина Львовна Хрущёва 1964 CE –

“For the past 40+ years, we have been building companies with a definition of business that is actually bad for business and undermines the very system of capitalism it proclaims to embrace.”

— Simon Sinek 1973 CE –
from Infinite Game

“[Capitalist–consumerism] is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do... most people today successfully live up to this ideal... the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more.”

— Yuval Harari יובל נח הררי‎ 1976 CE –
Israeli historian, professor, and philosopher

from Sapiens

“Capitalism did not defeat communism because capitalism was more ethical, because individual liberties are sacred or because God was angry with the heathen communists. Rather, capitalism won the Cold War because distributed data processing works better than centralized data processing, at least in periods of accelerating technological change. The central committee of the Communist Party just could not deal with the rapidly changing world of the late twentieth century. When all data is accumulated in one secret bunker, and all important decisions are taken by a group of elderly apparatchiks, they can produce nuclear bombs by the cartload, but not an Apple or a Wikipedia”

— Yuval Harari יובל נח הררי‎ 1976 CE –
Israeli historian, professor, and philosopher

from Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow