The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are read more

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

Never befriend the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressor.

Never befriend the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressor.

Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'etre to the imperfection of man and can read more

Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'etre to the imperfection of man and can attain their end, the elimination of man's innate impulse to violence, only by recourse to violence, the very thing they are called upon to prevent.

These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.

These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.

Freedom...refer[s] to a social relationship among people- namely, the absence of force as a prospective instrument of decision making. Freedom read more

Freedom...refer[s] to a social relationship among people- namely, the absence of force as a prospective instrument of decision making. Freedom is reduced whenever a decision is made under threat of force, whether or not force actually materializes or is evident in retrospect.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

The art of the indirect approach can only be mastered, and its full scope appreciated, by study of and reflection read more

The art of the indirect approach can only be mastered, and its full scope appreciated, by study of and reflection upon the whole history of war. But we can at least crystallize the lessons into two simple maxims- one negative, the other positive. The first is that, in face of the overwhelming evidence of history, no general is justified in launching his troops to a direct attack upon an enemy firmly in position. The second, that instead of seeking to upset the enemy's equilibrium by one's attack, it must be upset before a real attack is, or can be successfully launched.