W. Somerset Maugham Quote

"If a nation values anything more than freedom,
it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is
that if it is comfort or money that it values more,
it will lose that, too."

by:	W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
Source:	Strictly Personal, 1941
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Categories:	Freedom, Liberty, Money, Security
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That I could rate this 100 times. WOW!!! We hold this truth to be self evedent.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Self evident and sadly self ignored by most.  -- Anon
I suspect that most US citizens are more interested in safety and comfort than freedom. The recent election is proof of this.  -- jim k, austin
I like the quote, but I am wondering why a Communist nation like China for whom we are trying to change so that they have religious and politcal and press freedom etcetera, is already beating our butts economically. They have all the money and we are borrowing it from them. So what gives with this quote, kinda of makes it appear false don't we think. Maybe we are valuing the comfort and money obtained from using well made cheap foreign goods over the sacrifice of using shoody but expensive American goods, to the detriment of our hard won freedom.  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
China has 4 times our population, and an economy less than 1/3 our size, but you are right, as the government there loosens its grip, and gives the people some economic freedoms, its economy is growing in leaps and bounds (about 9-10% a year). And the US learns what lesson? Increase government regulations!  -- Chris, Rougemont, NC
Same thing happened with Russia when they dropped their income tax and loosened their restrictions; now that their economy has bounced back somewhat (even amidst all their tumbling stock market), they are tightening the grip again. China's economic surge won't last more than a generation (possibly two). China has several policies that will soon start fighting each other. Chris' point about the number of their population is indeed a factor. China might very soon start to experience a population implosion because of the following: consequences of the one child policy; cultural tradition to only want male children (because of the one child policy), which leads to many abortions of female fetuses; land production decreases due to bad environmental policies (the land in China Proper can only sustain 1.1 billion, but is supporting 1.3 billion); huge push for women in the technological and industrial workplace (urbanization is rampant in China, and finding a tech/industrial job is "gold" to the masses; women who obtain these jobs won't risk anything at all to lose them, especially having children; in fact, many women are simply having Oophorectomies). True freedom is a scarce commodity, but is very prosperous. De Tocqueville once said that Americans are so enamored with equality that they would rather be equal as slaves than unequal as freemen; perhaps this is a mentality that exists with many societies. It is a very real mentality that many Americans have that they would sacrifice their prosperity, even experience small amounts of "slavery," to supposedly give their neighbor a hand up. While the desire to help one's neighbor is noble, and perhaps the greatest thing a human can do, doing it at the cost of liberty and freedom is never the answer -- nor will it help you OR your neighbor in the long run.  -- Logan, Memphis, TN
If so-called patriots love their lives more than Liberty neither they nor their descendants shall enjoy Liberty. We will be forced into blood conflict to preserve and restore Liberty or we will be "Liberal" slaves. Don't understand? Start here: http://www.willowtown.com/promo/quotes.htm  -- waypasthadenough, Taylor County, Kentucky. CSA
Freedom means responsibility, that's why most men dread it. -- GB Shaw  -- E Archer, NYC
The recent election is only proof of voter ignorance.  -- warren, olathe
"...a Communist nation like China for whom we are trying to change...." We are trying to change for China?  -- A.WOODS, Gloucester
We've been losing our freedom for a long time. Now we're losing our money. Tomorrow we'll lose our comfort, and we'll be living in the natural state of man - "nasty, brutish, and short."  -- Ken, Allyn, WA
Thanks Mr. Woods. My sentence structure was not correct. I meant to say that we or some Americans would like to see China have what we call freedom. With out the freedom which we value so highly they are beating us economically it would appear. Just a bit of irony it seems.  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
That is so true.  -- Crystal, Pittsburgh

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