Isabel Paterson Zitate

Isabel Paterson war eine aus Kanada stammende US-amerikanische Journalistin, Literaturkritikerin und Schriftstellerin, die vor allem durch ihr Buch The God of the Machine bekannt wurde. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. Januar 1886 – 10. Januar 1961
Isabel Paterson: 17   Zitate 0   Gefällt mir

Isabel Paterson: Zitate auf Englisch

“The possibility of a short circuit, ensuing leakage and breakdown or explosion, occurs in the hook-up of political organization to the productive processes.”

Quelle: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 62
Kontext: These are not sentimental considerations; they constitute the mechanism of production and therefore of power. Personal liberty is the pre-condition of the release of energy. Private property is the inductor which initiates the flow. Real money is the transmission line; and the payment of debts comprises half the circuit. An empire is merely a long circuit energy-system. The possibility of a short circuit, ensuing leakage and breakdown or explosion, occurs in the hook-up of political organization to the productive processes. This is not a figure of speech or analogy, but a specific physical description of what happens.

“As such, the least practicable measure of government must be the best. Anything beyond the minimum must be oppression.”

Quelle: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 69
Kontext: Men are born free, that since they begin with no government, they must therefore institute government by voluntary agreement, and thus government must be their agent, not their superior. Since volition is a function of the individual, the individual has the precedent right. Then even if it was presumed that government did equate roughly with the moral shorcomings of humanity, it should still be limited and subsidiary. If everyone were invariably honest, able, wise, and kind, there should be no occasion for government. Everyone would readily understand what is desirable and what is possible in given circumstances, all would concur upon the best means toward their purpose and for equitable participation in the ensuing benefits, and would act without compulsion or default. The maximum production was certainly obtained from such voluntary action arising from personal initiative. But since human beings will sometimes lie, shirk, break promises, fail to improve their faculties, act imprudently, seize by violence the goods of others, and even kill one another in anger or greed, the government might be defined as the police organization. In that case, it must be described as a necessary evil. It would have no existence as a separate entity, and no intrinsic authority; it could not be justly empowered to act excepting as individuals infringed one another's rights, when it should enforce prescribed penalties. Generally, it would stand in the relation of a witness to contract, holding a forfeit for the parties. As such, the least practicable measure of government must be the best. Anything beyond the minimum must be oppression.

“Whether it does any good or not, a law enforced must hurt someone.”

Quelle: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 92

“An army is a diversion of energy from the productive life of a nation.”

Quelle: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 30

Ähnliche Autoren

Oriana Fallaci Foto
Oriana Fallaci 5
italienische Journalistin, Schriftstellerin und Widerstands…
Helen Rowland Foto
Helen Rowland 1
US-amerikanische Journalistin
Colette Foto
Colette 8
französische Schriftstellerin, Kabarettistin und Journalist…
Isabel Allende Foto
Isabel Allende 79
chilenische Schriftstellerin
Anaïs Nin Foto
Anaïs Nin 34
US-amerikanische Schriftstellerin
Virginia Woolf Foto
Virginia Woolf 46
britische Schriftstellerin
Helen Keller Foto
Helen Keller 23
amerikanische Schriftstellerin
Toni Morrison Foto
Toni Morrison 5
US-amerikanische Schriftstellerin und Literaturnobelpreistr…
Maya Angelou Foto
Maya Angelou 19
US-amerikanische Schriftstellerin, Professorin und Menschen…
Doris Lessing Foto
Doris Lessing 4
britische Schriftstellerin