Citações da esquerda britânica original

"While industry was on a small scale masters and men were intimately acquainted with each other, and there was little need of intervention from outside; there was no place for factory inspection, and little possibility of combined action on the part of the workers. In a small society custom and public opinion are enough to regulate the relationships between man and man in the ordinary affairs of life in accordance with elementary ideas of justice."

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), p. 7.

"(...) a large amount of charitable work done with the principal object of benefiting the soul of the giver, the effect on the welfare of the recipient being of a secondary consideration. (...) in so far as the object [of Charity] is the good of the benefactor rather than that of the beneficiary it is very far from the social service idea."

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), p. 8.

"(...) numerous benefactions which are given in order to quiet the mind from uneasiness at the sight of wretchedness, or to satisfy a queasy conscience that, recognising that all is not well, endeavours to obtain a cheap insurance against disturbing thoughts, or a mild glow of satisfaction at the feeling that some good has been done, and that gratitude has been merited."

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), pp. 8-9.

"The old incentive to charity that we find in the mediæval church became weaker when at the Reformation the doctrine of salvation by faith caused less stress to be laid on works (...)"

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), p. 9.

"Society as constituted was accepted, and the existence of the poor taken for granted, nay even welcomed as providing an outlet for the benevolence of the rich. Charity is always apt to be accompanied by a certain complacence and condescension on the part of the benefactor, and by an expectation of gratitude from the recipient which cuts at the root of all true friendliness. The charitable of the time [late 18th and 19th centuries] seem to us to-day to be smug and self-satisfied. They delighted in sermons to the poor on convenient virtues, and lacked that sharp self-criticism that is the note of society to-day."

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), pp. 9-10.

"Where formerly it was considered that the State was a sort of referee who kept the ring wherein contending individualities had full scope for contest, we now have the conception that it is the duty of the State to act as the co-ordinating factor in making all individual efforts work for the good of the citizens."

― Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (1920), p. 18.