Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.
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Don't steal. The government hates competition.
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. Whenever the secular arm is called in to sustain read more
No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. Whenever the secular arm is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old, it is always a bad idea, and not infrequently it is downright idiotic.
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to read more
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.
The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.
The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.
This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. read more
This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they read more
Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.
I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.
I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and read more
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and waterways being notable examples. This goes to the heart of why property rights are socially important in the first place. Property rights mean self-interested monitors. No owned creatures are in danger of extinction. No owned forests are in danger of being leveled. No one kills the goose that lays the golden egg when it is his goose.
