The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders.
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We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our "knowledge" and the perceivable facts. Since our "knowledge" is not read more
We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our "knowledge" and the perceivable facts. Since our "knowledge" is not to be doubted or questioned, it is the facts that have to be altered...
You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.
You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.
It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.
It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, read more
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.
Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and read more
Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.
Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and read more
Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty. Not only has liberty nothing to do with any other sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not demonstrate that some manners of living are more successful than others, much of the case for it would vanish.
Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm my own handler. Any questions? Ask read more
Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm my own handler. Any questions? Ask me... There's not going to be any more handler stories because I'm the handler... I'm Doctor Spin.
The ballot is stronger than bullets. - Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
The ballot is stronger than bullets. - Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. read more
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.
