If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic read more

If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of human nature is -- and why government keeps growing larger and ever more intrusive.

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. read more

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.

What a crazy world we live in! Trying to treat addiction as a legal problem, and trying to treat criminal read more

What a crazy world we live in! Trying to treat addiction as a legal problem, and trying to treat criminal misbehaviors using guns as a medical problem! Beam me up, Scotty. Ain't no intelligent life down here.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

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.

From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be read more

From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict which each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time.

Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central institution of a free society.

Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central institution of a free society.

Governments need armies to protect them against their enslaved and oppressed subjects.

Governments need armies to protect them against their enslaved and oppressed subjects.