Sam > Sam's Quotes

“Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”
― Upton Sinclair

“All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescabably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.”
― Upton Sinclair

“One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.”
― Uptown Sinclair

“If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked

“The old wanderlust had gotten into his blood, the joy of the unbound life, the joy of seeking, of hoping without limit.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“They were trying to save their souls- and who but a fool could fail to see that all that was the matter with their souls was that they had not been able to get a decent existence for their bodies?”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“The rich people not only had all the money, they had all the chance to get more; they had all the know-ledge and the power, and so the poor man was down, and he had to stay down.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“Dad, as a good American, believed his newspapers.”
― Upton Sinclair, Oil!

“As if political liberty made wage slavery any the more tolerable!”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.”
― Sinclair Lewis

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
― James Waterman Wise

“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”
― Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

“The Maker of the universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry

“It is one of the major tragedies that nothing is more discomforting than the hearty affection of the Old Friends who never were friends.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith

“You're so earnest about morality that I hate to think how essentially immoral you must be underneath.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

“She was snatched back from a dream of far countries, and found herself on Main Street.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

“But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

“Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.”
― Sinclair Lewis

“The men leaned back on their heels, put their hands in their trousers-pockets, and proclaimed their views with the booming profundity of a prosperous male repeating a thoroughly hackneyed statement about a matter of which he knows nothing whatever.”
― Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

“The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his "ideas" almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.”
― Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

“We become strongest, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look for moral gudance”
― Benito Mussolini

“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing agaisnt the state”
― Benito Mussolini

“Nationalism is an infantile thing. It is the measles of mankind.”
― Albert Einstein

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

“If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.”
― Henry Wallace

“The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”
― Henry Wallace

“We live in very remarkable times. We find with astonishment that progress has concluded an alliance with barbarism.”
― Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism