...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for read more

...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.

War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to read more

War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church, flag or ideal, there would be no wars.

The crime bill passed by the Senate would reinstate the Federal death penalty for certain violent crimes: assassinating the President; read more

The crime bill passed by the Senate would reinstate the Federal death penalty for certain violent crimes: assassinating the President; hijacking an airliner; and murdering a government poultry inspector.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and read more

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power- God, history, fate, nation or humanity.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions read more

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

...Although the political liberty of this country is greater than that of nearly every other civilized nation, its personal liberty read more

...Although the political liberty of this country is greater than that of nearly every other civilized nation, its personal liberty is said to be less. In other words, men are thought to be more under the control of extra-legal authorities, and to defer more to those around them, in pursuing even their lawful and innocent occupations, than in almost every other country.

Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.

Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.

We are as free as and free in exactly the sense that our neuronal processes are free.

We are as free as and free in exactly the sense that our neuronal processes are free.