William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 – April 12, 1910) was an American academic and "held the first professorship in sociology" at Yale College.
The waste of capital, in proportion to the total capital, in this country between 1800 and 1850, in the attempts which were made to establish means of communication and transportation, was enormous. Use this quote
The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay. Use this quote
Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves. Use this quote
A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness. Use this quote
It is remarkable that jealousy of individual property in land often goes along with very exaggerated doctrines of tribal or national property in land. Use this quote
Moreover, there is an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence, around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and prosperous society. Use this quote
It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme. Use this quote
