Socialism Quotes

The names at the top make a strange group: Joseph Goebbels, Mussolini, Thatcher, Orwell and George Fitzhugh. Some come from the Nazi movement, which called itself socialist, and some from opponents. For reading, go to the sourced lines instead. H. L. Mencken, in A Little Book in C Major (1916), defines socialism as the theory that one man’s desire for what he hasn’t got is more pleasing to a just God than another’s desire to keep what he has. Solzhenitsyn, at Harvard in 1978, was blunter about it.

Three entries are flagged. “Democracy is the road to socialism,” credited to Karl Marx, is disputed. A line about no longer knowing what socialism is, credited to Deng Xiaoping, is marked misattributed, and the notes say it concerned the French Revolution and was actually said by Zhou Enlai. A claim that National Socialism is based on Marx is credited to Hitler and also marked misattributed.

Random quote on Socialism

Most quoted on socialism:

Lacking much historical information and assuming (1) that victims of injustice generally do worse than they otherwise would and (2) that those from the least well-off group in the society have the highest probabilities of being the (descendants of) victims of the most serious injustice who are owed compensation by those who benefited from the injustices, ... then a rough rule of thumb for rectifying injustices might seem to be the following: organize society so as to maximize the position of whatever group ends up least well-off in the society.

Robert Nozick Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974)

Just as nationalism protects a people from outside forces, so socialism serves a people's domestic needs. We want the people's strength to be released within the nation, forging the people once more into a strong block. The individual citizen must again have the sense that, even if he is finds himself in the simplest and lowest position, that his life and opportunities are assured.

Hermann Göring Nationalism and Socialism (1933)

Socialism is the doctrine of liberation for the working class. It promotes the rise of the fourth class and its incorporation in the political organism of our Fatherland, and is inextricably bound to breaking the present slavery and regaining German freedom. Socialism, therefore, is not merely a matter of the oppressed class, but a matter for everyone.

Joseph Goebbels Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

"Socialism with a human face"? ... Frankenstein also had a human face.

Garry Kasparov Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

Why is it after a century of socialist disasters, and an intellectual legacy that has been time and again exploded, the left-wing position remains, as it were, the default position to which thinking people gravitate when called upon for a comprehensive philosophy? Why are "right-wingers" marginalised in the educational system, denounced in the media and regarded by our political class as untouchable, fit only to clean up after the orgies of luxurious nonsense indulged in by their moral superiors?

Roger Scruton Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)