Political Philosophy Questions

Civilization is like a mouse gnawing while its soothing us."

· In taking form man the object of his production, alienated labor takes from his species-life, his actual and objective existence as a species.

· Civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it."

· "Civilization seeks to increase bodily comforts, and it fails miserably even in doing so."

· "The more the worker appropriates the external world and sensuous nature through his labor, the more he deprives himself of the means of life in two respects: first, that the sensuous external world gradually ceases to be an object belonging to his labor, a means of life of his work; secondly, that it gradually ceases to be a means of life in the immediate sense, a means of physical subsistence of the worker..."

· This civilization takes note neither of morality nor of religion."

A man who lives by the favor of another considers himself dependent. But I live entirely by the favor of another if I owe him not only the maintenance of my life but also its creation, its source. My life necessarily has such an external ground if it is not my own creation... for the socialist man, however, the entire so-called world history is only the creation of man through human labor and the development of nature for man, [thus] he has evident and incontrovertible proof of his self-creation, his own formation process."

· Governments must be made for human being as they are, or as they are capable of speedily becoming ...

· On the contrary, many a people has gradually emerged from this condition by the aid of a central authority, whose position has made it the rival, and has ended by making it the master of the local despots

· A people no less unfitted for representative government by the contrary fault to that last specified; by extreme passiveness, and ready submission to tyranny

· In all human affairs, conflicting influences are required, to keep one another alive and efficient even for their own proper uses; and the exclusive pursuit of one good object, apart from some other which should accompany it, ends not in excess of one and defect of the other, but in the decay and loss even of that which has been exclusively cared for.

No one would wish that this body should itself have any power of enacting laws:the commission would only embody the element of intelligence in their construction; Parliament would represent that of will. No measure would become a law until expressly sanctioned by Parliament

· "Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people's reach; they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it"

· The unwritten maxims of the Constitution- in other words ,the positive political morality of the country: and this positive political morality is what we must look to, if we would know whom the really supreme power in the Constitution resides

· The work of government has been in the hands of governors by profession; which is the essence and meaning of bureaucracy

· "To me the Christian nations of our day present an alarming spectacle; the movement which carries them along [democracy] is already too strong to be halted, but it is not yet so swift that we must despair of directing it; our fate is in our hands, but soon it may pass beyond control"

· The worker becomes a cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces

· What it is the man's interest to do or refrain from, depends less on any outward circumstances, than upon what sort of man he is.

· The willingness of the people to accept representative government, only becomes a practical question, when an enlightened ruler, or a foreign nation or nations who have gained power over the country are disposed to offer it the boon.

· The positive evils and dangers of the representative, as of every other form of government, may be reduced to two heads: first, general ignorance and incapacity; or, to speak more moderately, insufficient mental qualifications, in the controlling body; secondly, the danger of its being under the influence of interests not identical with the general welfare of the community.