The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.

The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.

It is not conclusive proof of a doctrine's correctness that its adversaries use the police, the hangman, and violent mobs read more

It is not conclusive proof of a doctrine's correctness that its adversaries use the police, the hangman, and violent mobs to fight it. But it is a proof of the fact that those taking recourse to violent oppression are in their subconsciousness convinced of the untenability of their own doctrines.

...if we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular read more

...if we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.

Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.

Our elections are free -- it's in the results where eventually we pay.

Our elections are free -- it's in the results where eventually we pay.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.

The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.

The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If read more

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally.