Top 180 James Cook Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 4

101. “Those who help the poor the most also hurt them the most.”

— James Cook

102. “To write about business one should be in business, just as in writing about Tasmania one should visit Tasmania.”

— James Cook

103. “No matter how great your wisdom, you can still make a fool of yourself.”

— James Cook

104. “We are destroying capitalism to pay for socialism.”

— James Cook

105. “The American people have come to rely on the government for their security. They will find out how incompetent the government is when they no longer have security.”

— James Cook

106. “Doubt makes us reaffirm what we believe.”

— James Cook

107. “Unions are at a disadvantage in a company vote because the employees can see that the greatest advocates of unionization are often the malcontents and marginal workers.”

— James Cook

108. “Government is not competent enough to regulate.”

— James Cook

109. “The thing that distinguishes permanent poverty is bad character.”

— James Cook

110. “Money will always turn up when there is a potential for profit.”

— James Cook

111. “The more welfare, the more crime.”

— James Cook

112. “We are far too critical of the fabulous system of plenty that has brought us the highest living standards on earth. The liberals have done a good job of undermining faith in the market system.”

— James Cook

113. “Subsidies have changed the way the nation behaves.”

— James Cook

114. “Government is full of people who think they know what’s best for others and can rationalize compelling them to accept it.”

— James Cook

115. “God has the experience that comes from billions of years.”

— James Cook

116. “The reason our economic crisis has been forestalled is the reason there will be an economic crisis.”

— James Cook

117. “Animosity towards the merchant class has been around for centuries. Why? The goal of making a profit is quite obviously a self-serving motive. Other occupations, while equally self-serving, are better able to hide their motives.”

— James Cook

118. “Government charity gives the most to those who refuse to help themselves; private charity gives less.”

— James Cook

119. “Going without a thing enhances the desire to get it.”

— James Cook

120. “Socialism was made to order for tyrants.”

— James Cook

121. “Advice from others is always filtered through self interest.”

— James Cook

122. “The most practical information about life is sneered at by social planners.”

— James Cook

123. “The more noteworthy a person’s achievements, the more government agents are attracted to investigating that person.”

— James Cook

124. “Faith must be worked at.”

— James Cook

125. “Good times weaken belief.”

— James Cook

126. “Money could never have originated as paper.”

— James Cook

127. “It’s a vain hope to believe that people will voluntarily turn their back on government subsidies.”

— James Cook

128. “Nothing is more difficult than to make a profit.”

— James Cook

129. “In any given age it is only a few extremists who are right.”

— James Cook

130. “The idea that government can instruct private enterprise on how to eliminate waste is preposterous.”

— James Cook

131. “The purer the application of socialism, the worse the results, the purer the application of capitalism, the better the results.”

— James Cook

132. “No role in life is more important than to be a good mother.”

— James Cook

133. “Once a person comes to rely on the government for support, that person becomes a socialist through and through.”

— James Cook

134. “The one thing that flies in the face of all human history and experience, is that the government can do a superior job than the private sector.”

— James Cook

135. “The welfare system is the breeding ground of crime, addiction and radical politics.”

— James Cook

136. “You cannot rectify grievances from the past with today’s charity.”

— James Cook

137. “The only time you can have maximum economic progress is when social programs don’t exist.”

— James Cook

138. “Socialism is the triumph of people’s prejudices over their reason.”

— James Cook

139. “With socialized medicine, the trick is not to die while waiting for treatment.”

— James Cook

140. “At the very least, people who get subsidies should have to get up in the morning and do something, even if it’s a make work job. But most liberals would oppose even this simple test of responsibility.”

— James Cook

141. “The more successful an organization becomes, the more difficult it is to deal with.”

— James Cook

142. “What drives intellectuals and professors crazy is somebody with a high school diploma who made a fortune in business. They agree with Lenin, who thought success in business was a matter of luck, when in reality it is a matter of genius.”

— James Cook

143. “Government regulators are another name for police.”

— James Cook

144. “You can’t think in sound bytes.”

— James Cook

145. “Give persons who would cheat you every opportunity so you can soon be rid of them.”

— James Cook

146. “That which you worry about most in life is seldom bad, and that likely applies to dying.”

— James Cook

147. “Young atheists abound, but old atheists are rare.”

— James Cook

148. “A single charitable foundation started by one capitalist does more good than a world full of socialists and leftists. Think Carnegie and his libraries, or Sloan and Kettering their hospital, or Gates in Africa.”

— James Cook

149. “A business owner who is liberal probably inherited the business.”

— James Cook

150. “There is no help from without, only from within.”

— James Cook