The Soul of Man under Socialism

He endured the ecclesiastical authority of the Jewish Church, and would not repel its violence by any violence of his own.

In the modern stress of competition and struggle for place, such sympathy is naturally rare, and is also very much stifled by the immoral ideal of uniformity of type and conformity to rule which is so prevalent everywhere, and is perhaps most obnoxious in England.

Shallow speakers and shallow thinkers in pulpits and on platforms often talk about the world’s worship of pleasure, and whine against it.

It has been pointed out that one of the results of the extraordinary tyranny of authority is that words are absolutely distorted from their proper and simple meaning, and are used to express the obverse of their right signification.

Their authority is a thing blind, deaf, hideous, grotesque, tragic, amusing, serious, and obscene.

But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle? And when these four are joined together they make a terrible force, and constitute the new authority.

I need hardly say that I am not, for a single moment, complaining that the public and the public press misuse these words.

Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few.

As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.

He is at any rate a healthy protest. As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.