...democracy can be interpreted to assert not only equality before the law but also essentialistic identity in all respects. This is expressed in the claim, "All men are created equal," which is something very different from the statement, "All men have equal rights and are equal before the law." Anyone who believes in the genetic uniqueness of every individual thereby believes in the conclusion, "No two individuals are created equal.".
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Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the read more
Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the reflexive, and are ignorant and unreasonable by simple nature. We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive, to acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason. The examined life is impossible if we cannot examine, order, classify, define, distinguish, always in minute particulars.
For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.
For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.
The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing read more
The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.
The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think read more
The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think that master can no longer hear, they speak of everything with a frankness which is the more startling because those who listen to it become responsible.
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.
The more I saw of foreign countries the more I loved my own.
The more I saw of foreign countries the more I loved my own.
Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb.
Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb.
Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.
Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.
We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.
We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.
