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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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.
..the Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes read more
..the Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes from the nature of things. It declares the inalienable rights of man not only against all government but also against the people collectively.
It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.
It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.
Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to read more
Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing read more
The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.
America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over read more
America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.
Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom read more
Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.
The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.
The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.
This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but read more
This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.
