...we are apt to forget that the vast majority of men and women who fell under the totalitarian spell was read more

...we are apt to forget that the vast majority of men and women who fell under the totalitarian spell was activated by unselfish motives, ready to accept the role of martyr or executioner, as the cause demanded.

The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the read more

The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it.

We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.

We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.

To say that a farm boy knows how to milk a cow is to say that we can send him read more

To say that a farm boy knows how to milk a cow is to say that we can send him out to the barn with an empty pail and expect him to return with milk. To say that a criminologist understands crime is not to say that we can send him out with a grant or a law and expect him to return with a lower crime rate. He is more likely to return with a report on why he has not succeeded yet, and including the inevitable need for more money, a larger staff, more sweeping powers, etc.

The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is read more

The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations.

Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.

Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.

...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.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty read more

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against read more

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.