It is the nature of slavery to render its victims so abject that at last, fearing to be free, they read more

It is the nature of slavery to render its victims so abject that at last, fearing to be free, they multiply their own chains. You can liberate a freeman, but you cannot liberate a slave.

Obedience alone gives the right to command.

Obedience alone gives the right to command.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

The war for liberty never ends. One day liberty has to be defended against the power of wealth, on another read more

The war for liberty never ends. One day liberty has to be defended against the power of wealth, on another day against the intrigues of politicians, on another against the dead hand of bureaucrats, on another against the patrioter and the militarist, on another against the profiteer, and then against the hysteria and the passions of the mobs, against obscurantism and stupidity, against the criminal and against the overrighteous. In this campaign every civilized man is enlisted till he dies, and he only has known the full joy of living who somewhere and at some time has struck a decisive blow for the freedom of the human spirit.

Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural read more

Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The less of one, the more of the others. The degree of freedom that is possible is therefore tied to the extent to which people respond to persuasion or inducement.

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.

Policies are judged by their consequences, but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.

Policies are judged by their consequences, but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.

War: a wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.

War: a wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.