The Power Of The State

There Are Few Greater Temptations On Earth Than To Stay Permanently At Oxford In Meditation, And To Read All The Books In The Bodlean.

Property, As A General Social Institution, Well-divided Property, Having Disappeared And Capitalism Having Taken Its Place, You Cannot Reverse The Process Without Acting Against Natural Economic Tendencies.

How On Earth Could That Be Done? If You Try To Laugh And Say 'no' At The Same Time, It Sounds Like Neighing - Yet People Are Perpetually Doing It In Novels. If They Did It In Real Life They Would Be Locked Up.

Such Are The Mass Of The Supporters Of Either Party. They Derive Their Political Opinions Originally From Some Family Tradition Or Some Fanciful Preference, But They Back Them With All The Passion Of Sportsmen. In A Vague Subconscious Way They Know It Is A Game, But They Happen To Enjoy Playing The Game.

In The Same Way The Eminence Attaching To The Mere Possession Of Great Wealth Disappoints Us Nine Times Out Of Ten, Especially If The Wealth Has Been Accumulated Rapidly. For Great Wealth Is Accumulated Rapidly By Cunning Or Chance, Or A Mixture Of The Two. Cunning Has Nothing To Do With High Qualities; It Is Rather A Presumption Against Them; While Chance Has Nothing To Do With Them Either. Therefore It Is That Men Are Always Complaining After Meeting So-and-so, That He Seemed To Be Astonishingly Stupid, Though He Made A Million In Ten Years And Started As A Pauper.