Henry George was a great human who had a passion for justice and equality in human lives.
He wrote the book Progress and Poverty (full text with audio listening).
"One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form, and fervent love of justice. Every line is written as if for our generation."
From his book Progress and Poverty (also as an epitaph):
The truth that I have tried to make clear will not find easy acceptance. If that could be, it would have been accepted long ago. If that could be, it would never have been obscured. But it will find friends those who will toil for it; suffer for it; if needs be, die for it. This is the power of truth.
Interestingly, I thought about Dao De Jing Chapter 41, which echoes part of the truth that George Henry states. Below is my translation:
When the wise person hears of the Way, they act it out diligently.
When the mediocre hear of the Way,
they are uncertain and do not practice it.
When the foolish hear of the Way, they laugh out loud.
If it were not laughed at, it would not be the Way.
Therefore, there is an old saying:
“The enlightenment of the Way seems obscure.
Progression in the Way seems like a regression.
The even path of the Way seems uneven.
The higher virtue seems like valleys.
Great purity seems tarnished.
The great character seems weak.
Solid virtue seems lacking.
Great space has no corners.
A great vessel takes time to be filled.
A great sound is inaudible.
A great form is shapeless.”The Way is hidden and indescribable.
Yet it alone nourishes and completes all things.“Man [the human] is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.” --Henry George.
*More quotes from Goodreads
*Henry George Foundation