When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain- and since labor is pain in itself- it follows that men read more

Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain- and since labor is pain in itself- it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not read more

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast read more

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Watergate showed more strengths in our system than weaknesses... The whole country did take part in quite a genuine sense read more

Watergate showed more strengths in our system than weaknesses... The whole country did take part in quite a genuine sense in passing judgment on Richard Nixon.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their read more

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way.

...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.