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2020 July 17
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"My father taught that the only helping hand
you're ever going to be able to rely on
is the one at the end of your sleeve." |
"To argue against any breach of liberty
from the ill use that may be made of it,
is to argue against liberty itself,
since all is capable of being abused." |
"In matters of conscience,
the law of majority has no place." |
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2020 July 16
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"A government that is big enough
to give you all you want
is big enough to take it all away." |
"Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship,
the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics:
You get the same order of criminality from any State
to which you give power to exercise it;
and whatever power you give the State to do things FOR you
carries with it the equivalent power to do things TO you." |
"Those who would give up essential Liberty,
to purchase a little temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." |
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2020 July 15
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"He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand
the power to decide, at each step, the course of his life, and
who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power." |
"Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire
is that which he exercises over himself." |
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are." |
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2020 July 14
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"What assurance have we that our masters will or can keep the promise which induced us to sell ourselves? Let us not be deceived by phrases about 'Man taking charge of his own destiny'. All that can really happen is that some men will take charge of the destiny of the others. They will be simply men; none perfect; some greedy, cruel and dishonest. The more completely we are planned the more powerful they will be. Have we discovered some new reason why, this time, power should not corrupt as it has done before?" |
"That erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else." |
"In any free society, the conflict between
social conformity and individual liberty
is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary." |
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2020 July 13
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"[I]f we can but prevent the government
from wasting the labours of the people,
under the pretence of taking care of them,
they must become happy." |
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but
the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to
exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not
to take it from them, but to inform their discretion." |
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. That government is best which governs least." |
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