The career of a politician mainly consists in making one part of the nation do what it does not want read more

The career of a politician mainly consists in making one part of the nation do what it does not want to do, in order to please and satisfy the other part of the nation. It is the prolonged sacrifice of the rights of some persons at the bidding and for the satisfaction of other persons. The ruling idea of the politician - stated rather bluntly - is that those who are opposed to him exist for the purpose of being made to serve his ends, if he can get power enough in his hands to force these ends upon them.

That government is best which governs least.

That government is best which governs least.

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, read more

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.

He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand the power to decide, at each step, the read more

He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand the power to decide, at each step, the course of his life, and who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power.

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

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

China has no income tax, no unemployment and not a single soldier outside its borders.

China has no income tax, no unemployment and not a single soldier outside its borders.

People cut themselves off from their ties of the old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking read more

People cut themselves off from their ties of the old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking for a place where they can be free, where they can do things they couldn't do anywhere else.

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real read more

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress, and the freedom that makes progress possible, lies in unification. For where unification has been able to establish unity of ideas it has usually ended in uniformity, paralysing the growth of new ideas. And where the unification has merely brought about an artificial or imposed unity, its irksomeness has led through discord to disruption.Vitality springs from diversity- which makes for real progress so long as there is mutual toleration, based on the recognition that worse may come from an attempt to suppress differences than from acceptance of them. For this reason, the kind of peace that makes progress possible is best assured by the mutual checks created by a balance of forces- alike in the sphere of internal politics and of international relations.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.