Henry Hazlitt Quotes

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

The World, thinking itself affronted by superior merit, takes delight to bring it down to its own level.

The day of reckoning came, and that day was the Terror. The heirs of those who toiled made their account with the heirs of those who played.

There can be little doubt that many egalitarians are motivated at least partly by envy.

Envy is the root of the egalitarian ethos.

Injustice boils in men's hearts as does steel in its cauldron, ready to pour forth, white hot, in the fullness of time.

That some are poorer than others, ever was and ever will be: And that many are naturally querulous and envious, is an Evil as old as the World.

If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.

Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.

My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and given the people a chance to know what real liberty means. And if I could bring that about today by giving up my life, I would do it gladly.

In Europe and Australia, there is something called the Tall Poppy Syndrome: People like to cut the tall poppies. They don't want you to succeed, and they cut you down - especially people from your own social class.

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.

Communism possesses a language which every people can understand - its elements are hunger, envy, and death.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

Those above are going down, those below are going up.

The revolution... is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

Peoples, hear the signal! Arise, for the last battle The International Fights for the Rights of Man! No higher being can save us, No God, no Kaiser, nor tribune Saving us from misery we ourselves alone must do!

When people are educated, class distinction disappears.

Whom do I hate most, among all the rabble of to-day?' The Socialist who undermines the workingman's instincts, who destroys his satisfaction with his insignificant existence, who makes him envious and teaches him revenge.”

The absolutists of contract are the real parents of revolution.

The poor man … will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they have improperly won… the most awful passions will be let loose.

Usually the impetus of a revolution is a relatively small group with positive goals but also a larger collection of people with resentments.