If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed read more

If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed in winning the support of their fellow citizens and converting them to the endorsement of policies that bring and preserve prosperity, the cause of mankind and civilization is hopeless. There is no other means to safeguard a propitious development of human affairs than to make the masses of inferior people adopt the ideas of the elite. This has to be achieved by convincing them. It cannot be accomplished by a despotic regime that instead of enlightening the masses beats them into submission. In the long run the ideas of the majority, however detrimental they may be, will carry on. The future of mankind depends on the ability of the elite to influence public opinion in the right direction.

Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the read more

Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.

Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.

Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren't. I don't know if its the way you read more

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren't. I don't know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

If you make a living, if you earn your own money, you're free -- however free one can be on read more

If you make a living, if you earn your own money, you're free -- however free one can be on this planet.

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

Even more significant of the inherent weakness of the collectivist theories is the extraordinary paradox that from the assertion that read more

Even more significant of the inherent weakness of the collectivist theories is the extraordinary paradox that from the assertion that society is in some sense more than merely the aggregate of all individuals their adherents regularly pass by a sort of intellectual somersault to the thesis that in order that the coherence of this larger entity be safeguarded it must be subjected to conscious control, that is, to the control of what in the last resort must be an individual mind. It thus comes about that in practice it is regularly the theoretical collectivist who extols individual reason and demands that all forces of society be made subject to the direction of a single mastermind, while it is the individualist who recognizes the limitations of the powers of individual reason and consequently advocates freedom as a means for the fullest development of the powers of the interindividual process.

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing read more

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what has worked with what sounded good. In area after area- crime, education, housing, race relations- the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the read more

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it's always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.