Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to read more

Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -and both commonly succeed, and are right.

...this is precisely the purpose of censorship- not only to block unwanted views, but to keep people who are unhappy read more

...this is precisely the purpose of censorship- not only to block unwanted views, but to keep people who are unhappy from knowing how many millions of others share their unhappiness; to keep the dormant opposition from awakening to its own developing strength.

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.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong you cannot be too conservative.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong you cannot be too conservative.

In war there is no substitute for victory.

In war there is no substitute for victory.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

I wonder how many of the people who profess to believe in the leveling ideas of collectivism and egalitarianism really read more

I wonder how many of the people who profess to believe in the leveling ideas of collectivism and egalitarianism really just believe that they themselves are good for nothing. I mean, how many leftists are animated by a quite reasonable self-loathing? In their hearts they know that they are not going to become scholars or inventors or industrialists or even ordinary good kind people. So they need a way to achieve that smugness for which the left is so justifiably famous. They need a way to achieve self-esteem without merit. Well, there is politics. In an egalitarian world everything will be controlled by politics, and politics requires no merit.

...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are read more

...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement.

The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, read more

The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.