New York Times Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"When men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they cannot be easily cured of it."

by:	New York Times
Source:	1909, commenting on the proposed 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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Categories:	Property, Subservience, Taxation, Theft
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Reader comments about this quote:

Very sage editorial, wish it had the author's name. -- J Allen, Arlington, VA 1
This brings us to the income tax which is nothing more than government sanctioned extortion. It's legalized theft. -- jim k, Austin 1
Describes perfectly the "culture of theft" that pervades our serf like lives today. -- J Carlton, Calgary 1
where can we read the whole NYT editorial containing this quote? -- david stewart, lakeland, la
True and that is why legislation is needed to protect against things like child labor, explotation of women, immigrants etcetera. The nation has always been full of people who will take every bit of dignity and humanity from others for their own personal enrichment, from slave holders, indentured servants etc. Not to mention the rape and degradation of the environment for personal gain. -- Waffler, Smith
The only way to stop that habit is to make it very painful to even start. -- RBESRQ 1
Waffler, your proposals are the very cause of the wholesale theft of labor and property in this country. You believe you should have the right to tell everyone else how it should be, and thus defend the plundering of the People for your personal crusades. To supposedly save women and children from exploitation, the means are simply to exploit ALL the people. Brilliant, Waffler, truly brilliant (not). -- E Archer, NYC 2
Then, when those men have sufficiently advanced their habit of helping themselves to the property of others (complete with all illegal and irrational arguments and extinguished any moral sensitivity thereto), they then enter government to perfect their habits. -- Mike, Norwalk 2
I don't know the history of 1909 when this was first proposed. It would be interesting to find out what the political and social circumstances were that spawned this outright theft of our incomes. -- gunnycee, durham, NC 1
Every time that the government wants to take money from any particular section of the economy to benefit another, we should know that we are all taking another step towards serfdom. The person who is looted of the rewards of his labor or even his inherited wealth for the benefit of others is made nothing less than a slave. -- Lee Poteet, Stroud 1
Guess the times have changed a bit. -- warren, olathe 1
Childish quotation, men want to be respected and acknowledged for their true authentic imperishable human possessions, thoughts and ideas. True substantial thoughts and ideas take the entire species, actually helping others, to a whole new forward advance. True possessions help all, simply because humans support humans. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 2
And that requires taxing people's labors? You cannot raise a man up by tearing another man down. -- E Archer, NYC 2
Mr Archer, I am completely against the practices of predation and in a favor of honest integrity. You are tearing down folks when you are not properly housing, feeding, and developing everyone and blaming this same victim. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 1
It is not the citizen's responsibility to feed or house his neighbor, so neither can it be the representative government's responsibility either. Charity and compassion must be voluntary, and dare I say essential for a 'civilized' people. Most social ills are caused by government overstepping its authority — like printing money until it becomes nearly worthless, which is the primary cause of poverty in the world. Every animal in nature must provide for itself or else perish. Man cannot avoid the laws of nature. -- E Archer, NYC 2
Something, according to the child's tale, even the great god couldn't respond to, but you are your brother and sister's keeper. We are an advanced creature of social responsibility and we will carry out this action for it is nature's command for us to enable all of life's preservation directive. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 2
Mr Archer, you and all the other degenerates miss the entire point of our very existence. We need not hunt and kill for preservation. We have a responsibility to exchange information and positive labor to better enhance our survival by positive production and creation. We have an obligation to more than just a bunch of cowardly murderers, rapist, and robbers. We are intended by nature to be honorable universal citizens of integrity and responsibility through law abiding connection and transmission. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
The quote is about helping ourselves to the property of others. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a corruption of the Golden Rule. Twisting the Biblical verse "Am I my brother's keeper?" to defend plunder is a classic tactic used by atheists to supposedly confront the faithful's hypocrisy, all the while their own hypocrisy knows no bounds in their 'legalized' theft of the fruits of the labors of the freeman. -- E Archer, NYC 2
Mr Archer, nothing was twisted, what was displayed was just an observance of the insubstantialism of the all knowing, all seeing god. The child's tale is as follows: Cain murders his brother Abel, over Abel's produce. The god supposedly asked Cain about the whereabouts of his brother Abel. Cain answered as the story follows, "Am I my brothers keeper?" The god guy didn't answer as we recall. We gullible catholic kid's undoubtedly knew that the god guy knew. But the hard core catholic kids knew because of the numerous attempts to kill their own family members. The gullible just stopped attending the church, started thinking, stopped believing in the gods and understanding we are responsible for ourselves and everyone else. It's called mental and social health, Socialism. Again we are our brother and sister's keeper. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 2
It is indeed a shame that the corruptions of the Catholic Church have caused so many to throw the baby out with the bath water. Are Jesus' words any less true because of wickedness in high places? Once again, the socialists attempt to appropriate what they never created and what is not theirs. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Statists, whether religious or atheistic, seek power — they claim authority over others, declaring any view other than their own to be inferior. Give them an inch, and they'll take a mile — they are 'liberal' no more. "The devil cites scripture for his own purposes..." -- E Archer, NYC 2
Mr Archer, Jesus is not much more than a myth to me. The story of Jesus depends on who tell it. Hulk Hogan's version would present itself along the lines "Jesus said, if I wasn't nailed to this cross I would kick all your arses," and so on. There's definitely no devil, mentally ill folks can make the devil characterization description tale appear an amateur, maybe an angel. About misappropriation, the Socialist just desires a more legitimate economic base than drug running and sex trafficking. I personally seek only to control my own sound moral behavior. Absolute authority is moral authority, and absolute morality is the human authority. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 2
"The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist." ~ Charles Baudelaire -- E Archer, NYC 2
Never, ever been tricked by a devil, too busy being tricked by the mentally disordered. Healthy mentalities, I notice don't trick, sadly, Mr Archer, the truth tends to totally confound the mentally disorganized. Truth correctly arranges the mentally organized. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 1
Sillik, 🤪 hahaha / lololol — your moronic word salad brings a smile. Since you do not recognize any existence of a devil or even what it is, you have no idea whether or not you've been tricked by one. AND, since you reject truth regularly (as evidenced by your falsely defining words and concepts through your personal dictionary for mentally ill children, for one; — your touting socialism as something it isn't, for another; — etc.) you define yourself as mentally disorganized. -- Mike,, Norwalk
Devils and angels come in all forms. The 'devil' is a liar, the father of all lies. Wherever there is purposeful deception, wherever there is hatred, wherever there is a blood lust, there is the devil. Indeed, the truth dispels lies and will order a disordered mind. I invite you, Fred, to realize the Truth, for it not only brings peace and understanding, it liberates from the shackles of falsehood and deceit. Have Americans been deceived by the powers-that-should-not-be? Absolutely! What can save us from this curse? The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. In order to realize the truth, one must first be truthful with oneself — we cannot see past our own self-delusion. The truth is indestructible, unlike untruth which must ever be propped up with lies. Once the lie is exposed, the veil is lifted, the deception dissolved. I consider myself blessed in that in the pursuit of truth and the desire to uncover my own self-deceptions, the devil was revealed. It is my experience that the devil will never show his cards until the cheat is exposed. This unfortunately is the way of this illusory world. I didn't believe it either until I was shown the truth ever in front of us. We have so much invested in that which is false. Upon its discovery we have two choices, accept it along with what we have lost or double-down in hopes that the next hand will recover our losses. (Psst — you can never win a rigged game... the lie can never become truth.) -- E Archer, NYC 1
Mike,, Norwalk, I cannot understand the need to extend childish tales of devils, gods, goddesses, ghost and goblins. We must, as role models, not confuse the young with much attention paid to such baseless phoenoma. We must present life as real as possible, for the sake of the young, to really realize and appreciate a life of the arts, sciences and discovery. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
Mr Archer, I don't play games, and yes the kids tend to mess up the circumstances continually. But I must persevere. I have never suffered from self deception not even when my cousin George had just beaten me in a heated 40 yard dash, I just wanted another chance. But I know now the result would have been the same. He was just better trained than me and I realize that now and suspected it even back than, some 50 years past. Somewhat of immature sore loser childishness. I've grown up since. If I was ever self-deceived, I could never admit this truth. The community however jumped at such a chance of this demonstration of a great flaw and made me a more prominent splinter than I felt I could have ever have been. An examined life is a valuable life. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 1
"I have never suffered from self deception..." How would you know? You've never been conned? You've never believed a lie? You've never lied to yourself? Let me get this straight, upon examining your life, you have concluded that you have never been deceived by any idea you've ever had? Wow, that's some real self-examination there! Talk about self-deception... -- E Archer, NYC
Mr Archer, what I claim is I've never lied to myself. Told a few doosies to others and suffered from that, but never been conned by myself, others and their doosies, cons, hustles, yes, but not by myself. And just not in possession of correct directions or procedures is not self-deception, it's just being incorrect. Honest mistakes, every goddamn day. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
Correction: Mr Archer, what I claim is I've never lied to myself. Told a few doosies to others and suffered from that, but never been conned by myself; other's and their doosies, cons, hustles, yes, but not by myself. And just not in possession of correct directions or procedures is not self-deception. It's just being incorrect. Honest mistakes, every goddamn day. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
Sillik, your double speak word salad is a contradiction to your earlier posts. By example, you have rejected any/all discovery of truth, fact, law and science. -- Mike,, Norwalk
Mr Archer, this incident I mentioned with my cousin, after further analysis, I can with a clear conscious say, I wasn't being bitter, I remember that pleasant day of a family gathering. I was just talking trash, I was in a jovial mode. I was just kidding around to get a reaction. I wasn't sore about anything and well aware I lost the race. But I didn't lose the pleasantry of that fine family gathering event. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

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