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    It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.

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  21  /  17  

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

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The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

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The fact that slaughter [battle] is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but [it does] not read more

The fact that slaughter [battle] is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but [it does] not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharp sword and hack off our arms.

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I should have had a circuitous answer that was a non-answer.

I should have had a circuitous answer that was a non-answer.

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Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

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Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.

Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.

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Without a country, I am not a man.

Without a country, I am not a man.

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The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

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