The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and read more

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.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."N. B.: This read more

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."N. B.: This quote is commonly attributed to Voltaire, but it is not found in his writing. - The Friends of Voltaire.

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If read more

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally.

I don't know exactly what democracy is. But we need more of it.

I don't know exactly what democracy is. But we need more of it.

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...

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold read more

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole read more

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
N.B.: This quote refers to the British disarmament of the Indian Army. Gandhi never advocated the individual right to bear arms. - Gandhi, An Autobiography.

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a read more

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

No serious historian of politics would imagine that he had accounted for the protective tariff of the system of bounties read more

No serious historian of politics would imagine that he had accounted for the protective tariff of the system of bounties or subsidies, for the monetary and banking laws, for the state of law in regard to corporate privileges and immunities, for the actual status of property rights, for agricultural or for labor policies, until he had gone behind the general claims and the abstract justifications and had identified the specifically interested groups which promoted the specific law.