Isabel Paterson

“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends. This is demonstrably true; nor could it be otherwise. The percentage of positively malignant, vicious or depraved persons is necessarily small, for no species could survive if its members were habitually and consciously bent upon injuring one another. Destruction is so easy that even a minority of persistently evil intent could shortly exterminate the unsuspecting majority of well-disposed persons.”

- Isabel Paterson (1886 – 1961), in her book The God of the Machine (1943).

The Author of the Quote

Isabel Paterson was a Canadian-born journalist and political philosopher, and a staunch defender of capitalism. She was a close associate of Ayn Rand, though they differed on issues of religion (Ayn Rand was an atheist). Libertarians have claimed Paterson as one of their own, because of her belief in self-reliance and individualism, though it is debatable if she was a Libertarian in the modern sense. Raised in poverty, she opposed the New Deal. She described government planning on welfare as “a mother’s boy economic program with a kind maternal government taking care of everybody out of an inexhaustible income drawn from mysterious sources.” When she retired, she refused to draw any income from Social Security.

From: Family Security Matters dot org

Makes one also remember another old quote: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Such is the reality of the so-called compassionate Left.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary