He has been called a mediocre man; but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.

He has been called a mediocre man; but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me. But it can keep him from lynching read more

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me. But it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. read more

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.

The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.

The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.

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.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond.

Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond.

The plans differ; the planners are all alike...

The plans differ; the planners are all alike...

The war for liberty never ends. One day liberty has to be defended against the power of wealth, on another read more

The war for liberty never ends. One day liberty has to be defended against the power of wealth, on another day against the intrigues of politicians, on another against the dead hand of bureaucrats, on another against the patrioter and the militarist, on another against the profiteer, and then against the hysteria and the passions of the mobs, against obscurantism and stupidity, against the criminal and against the overrighteous. In this campaign every civilized man is enlisted till he dies, and he only has known the full joy of living who somewhere and at some time has struck a decisive blow for the freedom of the human spirit.