The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.

The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.

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

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

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.

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend read more

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.

To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence read more

To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief from the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility.

Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote.

Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote.

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.

What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.