The moment a man gets money, so many men are trying to get it away from him that in a little while he regards the whole human race as his enemy, and he generally thinks that they could be rich too if they would only attend to business as he has. Understand, I am not blaming these people.… We must remember that these rich men are naturally produced. Do not blame them. Blame the system.

—Robert Ingersoll

politics money wealth enemy systems

More quotations from Robert Ingersoll

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

—Robert Ingersoll

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

—Robert Ingersoll

There is something wrong in a government where those who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

—Robert Ingersoll

If we had done as the kings told us five hundred years ago, we should all have been slaves. If we had done as the priest told us, we should all have been idiots. If we had done as the doctors told us, we should all have been dead. We have been saved by disobedience. We have been saved by the splendid thing called independence, and I want to see more of it. I want to see children raised so that they will have it.

—Robert Ingersoll

Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, failure, misfortune—all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical.

—Robert Ingersoll

justice poverty crime logic punishment

More quotations tagged with “enemy”

El Tornillo walks the streets of Melo. People in town think he's crazy. He carries a mirror in his hand and he looks at himself with furrowed brow. He doesn't take his eyes off the mirror. "What are you doing, Tornillo?" "I'm here," he says, "keeping watch on the enemy.

—Eduardo Galeano

self eyes enemy mirror

The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine.

—Stanislaw J. Lec

enemy other similariy resemblance

The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one's conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not in your own attitude.

evil conscience attitude misfortune enemy relief

The struggle to save the global environment is in one way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies. In a war such as this, then, what is victory and how will we recognize it?

war environmentalism Hitler enemy ally victory

History

11 Jul 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

The moment a man gets money, so many men are trying to get it away from him that in a little while he regards the whole human race as his enemy, and he generally thinks that they could be rich too if they would only attend to business as he has. Understand, I am not blaming these people. . . . We must remember that these rich men are naturally produced. Do not blame them. Blame the system.