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It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or read more
It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.
If we truly cared about our children and future generations, instead of demagoging about them, we'd worry more about saving read more
If we truly cared about our children and future generations, instead of demagoging about them, we'd worry more about saving liberty than saving Social Security.
The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is read more
The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week.
Nobody is equal to anybody. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.
Nobody is equal to anybody. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to strike it blind, to drive it insane, to direct it read more
It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to strike it blind, to drive it insane, to direct it towards a false goal. Napoleon proved this.
...the ultimate decision about what is accepted as right and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom but read more
...the ultimate decision about what is accepted as right and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom but by the disappearance of the groups that have adhered to the "wrong" beliefs.
If the French were really intelligent, they'd speak English.
If the French were really intelligent, they'd speak English.
The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is read more
The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent.
