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2008 July 18
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"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." |
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes
too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts.
These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes.
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women;
when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it;
no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.
While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it." |
Why not include a provision that everybody shall, in good weather, hunt on his own land and catch fish in rivers that are public property and that Congress shall never restrain any inhabitant of America from eating and drinking, at seasonable times, or prevent his lying on his left side, in a long winter's night, or even on his back, when he is fatigued by lying on his right. |
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2008 July 17
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"In the process of helping some (perhaps most) people to more utility and justice, the state imposes on civil society a system of interdictions and commands." |
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"Self-imposed limits on sovereign power can disarm mistrust,
but provide no guarantee of liberty and property beyond those
afforded by the balance between state and private force." |
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2008 July 16
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"The essential characteristic of socialism
is the denial of individual property rights..." |
"Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in
their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of
the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be
looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase,
and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances
will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring
them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing
all your estates among them." |
"All socialism involves slavery.... That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires. The relation admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. The essential question is -- How much is he compelled to labor for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit? |
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2008 July 15
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"Society's needs come before the individual's needs." |
"It is important therefore that in these schools the precepts of morality and religion should be inculcated, and habits of subordination and obedience formed. One of the greatest blessings which the State can confer upon her children is to instill into their minds at an early period moral and religious truths. ... Thousands of unfortunate children are growing up in perfect ignorance of their moral and religious duties. Their parents equally unfortunate know not how to instruct them, and have not the opportunity or ability of placing them under the care of those who could give them instruction. The State, in the warmth of her affection and solicitude for their welfare, must take charge of those children and place them in schools where their minds can be enlightened and their hearts can be trained to virtue." |
"People who make careers out of helping others --
sometimes at great sacrifice, often not --
usually don't like to hear that those others might get along fine,
might even get along better, without their help." |
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2008 July 14
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"We can have justice whenever those who have not been injured
by injustice are as outraged by it as those who have been." |
"But if you say, you can still pass the violations over,
then I ask, hath your house been burnt?
Hath your property been destroyed before your face?
Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on?
Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands,
and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have.
But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers,
then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover,
and whatever may be your rank or title in life,
you have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant." |
"Pity the poor, wretched, timid soul, too faint hearted to resist his oppressors.
He sings the songs of the damned, 'I cannot resist, I have too much to lose,
they might take my property or confiscate my earnings,
what would my family do, how would they survive?'
He hides behind pretended family responsibility, failing to see that
the most glorious legacy that we can bequeath to our posterity is liberty!" |
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