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The folly of men, not their hard-heartedness, was the great cause of the world's poverty. It was not the crime of man, nor of any class of men, that made the race so miserable, but a hideous, ghastly mistake, a colossal world-darkening blunder. And then I showed them how four fifths of the labor of men was utterly wasted by the mutual warfare, the lack of organization and concert among the workers.

— Edward Bellamy Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

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More quotes by Edward Bellamy

The nation guarantees the nurture, education, and comfortable maintenance of every citizen from the cradle to the grave.

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second.

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

An American credit card is just as good in Europe as American gold used to be.

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

Manual labor meant association with a rude, coarse, and ignorant class of people. There is no such class now.

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

The greater efficiency which education gives to all sorts of labor, except the rudest, makes up in a short period for the time lost in acquiring it.

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)

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Attribution

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