A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a read more

A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.

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.

I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.

I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.

It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or read more

It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.

No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one. read more

No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one. - "London Times", February 17, 1941.

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, read more

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for read more

...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.

The celebration of unbounded individualism means, beyond some point, the acceptance of force- either private (crime, riot, vigilanteism) or public read more

The celebration of unbounded individualism means, beyond some point, the acceptance of force- either private (crime, riot, vigilanteism) or public (authoritarianism).

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.