William Rees-Mogg Quotes

“Anyone who has walked through the deserted palaces of Versailles or Vienna realise how much of a part of the life of a nation is lost when a monarchy is abolished.

If Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle were transformed into museums, if one politician competed against another for president of the republic, Britain would be a sadder and less interesting place. Our politicians are not men such as could challenge more than a thousand years of history.”

“Governments lie; bankers lie; even auditors sometimes lie: gold tells the truth.”

“The time for reconciliation in Tibet is passing with the looming departure of its spiritual leader.”

“The Treasury model of the economy has been pretty well wrong on everything for many years.”

“The United States may have retained more of the intellectual imprint of the British 18th century than Britain itself.”

“War on the cheap is always a rotten policy.”

“Contrary to the romantic jabberings of Marxists and others who have transformed the violent opponents of labor-saving technology in to heroes, they were an unpleasant and violent lot who opposed the introduction of technology that raised living standards worldwide for purely selfish reasons.”

“Sovereign Individuals will no longer merely accede to what is imposed upon them as human resources of the state. Millions will shed the obligations of citizenship to become customers for the useful services governments provide. Indeed, they will create and patronize parallel institutions that will place most of the services associated with citizenship on an entirely commercial basis.

For most of the twentieth century, the productive have been treated as assets by the state, in much the way that the dairy farmer treats milk cows. They have been squeezed ever more vigorously. Now the cows will sprout wings.”

“Success in business, as in most areas of life, depends upon being able to solve problems. If you can teach yourself how to solve problems, you have a bright career ahead of yourself.

No matter where you live, you will find problems galore in need of solving. In most cases, those who would benefit from solutions of their problems will pay you handsomely to effect them.”

“The dynamic of foraging created very different incentives to work than those to which we have become accustomed since the advent of farming. The capital requirements for life as a forager were minimal.

A few primitive tools and weapons sufficed. There was no outlet for investment, not even private property in land.

Having no permanent homes, they had little need to work hard to acquire property or maintain it. With no reason to earn and almost no division of labor, the concept of hard work as a virtue must have been foreign to hunting-and-gathering groups.

There was literally nothing to be gained by working beyond the bare minimum required for survival.”