The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.
If you allow a political catchword to go on and grow, you will awaken some day to find it standing over you, arbiter of your destiny, against which you are powerless.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote warns against the dangers of blindly following political rhetoric, which can end up controlling our lives.
William Graham Sumner highlights the importance of critical thinking when it comes to political ideologies. He expresses concern that if individuals allow powerful political slogans or ideas to propagate without questioning their implications, they risk losing personal agency and ultimately finding themselves subjugated by those very ideas. The quote serves as a caution to remain vigilant and discerning in the face of persuasive rhetoric.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a political discussion, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of scrutinizing political messages.
More from William Graham Sumner
All quotes →It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme.
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
The Forgotten Man is delving away in patient industry, supporting his family, paying his taxes, casting his vote, supporting the church and the school, reading his newspaper, and cheering for the politician of his admiration, but he is the only one for whom there is no provision in the great scramble and the big divide. Such is the Forgotten Man. He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays — yes, above all, he pays.
The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its 'debt' in the penitentiary or the poor house.
We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could.
Similar quotes
The vicarious responsibility for things we have not done, this taking upon ourselves the consequences for things we are entirely innocent of, is the price we pay for the fact that we live our lives not by ourselves but among our fellow men, and that the faculty of action, which, after all, is the political faculty par excellence, can be actualized only as one of the many and manifold forces of human community.
Marijuana is rejected all over the world. Damned. In England heroin is alright for out-patents, but marijuana? They'll put your ass in jail. I wonder why that is? The only reason could be: To Serve the Devil - Pleasure! Pleasure, which is a dirty word in Christian culture.
Very often, I confess, the teller of dreams bores me. His dream could perhaps interest me if it were frankly worked on. But to hear a glorious tale of his insanity! I have not yet clarified, psychoanalytically, this boredom during the recital of other people's dreams. Perhaps I have retained the stiffness of a rationalist. I do not follow the tale of justified incoherence docilely. I always suspect that part of the stupidities being recounted are invented.
The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent.
The Lord was Baptized, not to be cleansed Himself, but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism.
Now if the religious skeptic is right, we can know nothing about God. And if we can know nothing about God, how can we know God so well that we can know that he cannot be known? How can we know that God cannot and did not reveal himself—and perhaps even through human reason?