When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves. A race of free men is necessarily a race of read more

A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves. A race of free men is necessarily a race of egoists.

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if read more

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.

I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of read more

I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of history was small; first and foremost, the slaughter was meant as an offering to the gods, to king and country, or the future happiness of mankind. The crimes of Caligula shrink to insignificance compared to the havoc wrought by Torquemada. The number of victims of robbers, highwaymen, rapists, gangsters and other criminals at any period of history is negligible compared to the massive numbers of those cheerfully slain in the name of the true religion, just policy, or correct ideology.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

[expressing John Locke's view]...whenever anyone threatens any other innocent human in a way that makes manifest an ignorance or disregard read more

[expressing John Locke's view]...whenever anyone threatens any other innocent human in a way that makes manifest an ignorance or disregard of the fundamental equality as regards the right to self-preservation, the creature in human shape who acts in this way is to be treated by any and all other rational humans as a wild, clever, and therefore very dangerous animal, to be destroyed (if necessary) in order to safeguard the rest.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their read more

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.