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The State ... should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national minimum, it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to provide more than that minimum for himself and his family.

— William Beveridge

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Finance

More quotes by William Beveridge

The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.

Voluntary Action (1948)

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)

A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.

Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)

Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.

Full Employment in a Free Society (1944)

The trouble in modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership 'til they have lost the desire to lead anyone.

All William Beveridge quotes →

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We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.

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Economics is on the side of humanity now.

Isaac Asimov Empire novels (1950)

Since the state must necessarily provide subsistence for the criminal poor while undergoing punishment, not to do the same for the poor who have not offended is to give a premium on crime.

John Stuart Mill Principles of Political Economy (1848)

Economy, in the estimation of common minds, often means the absence of all taste and comfort.

Sydney Smith Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Beveridge (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.