Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (1918-2008) Russian novelist, Soviet dissident, imprisoned for 8 years for critizing Stalin in a personal letter, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quote

“You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's FREE again.”

Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


Ratings and Comments


jim k, Austin, Tx

A good example of the first line of this quote is the withholding tax. Withholding a portion of wages came about during WW2 in order to "pay for the war". It was due to end after the war. Unfortunately the politicians in Washington saw a way to bleed citizens a little at a time instead of making them pay the income tax in one lump sum on March 15th.( This was later changed to April 15th). If the one payment tax continued , most likely the income tax would have been scrapped when the people saw how much the government was robbing them. Better to take a little blood at each paycheck so the wage earners wouldn't notice.

Matthew, Peoples Republik of Kalifornia

This must be what politicians mean when they say this is a free country!

Mike, Norwalk

jim, said well. Another example is the individual was once sovereign with a body politic protecting his rights. Now, that government has been taken away and replaced by a despotic overlord (promoting one agenda and preventing veterans from public places is but one example). One more example is licensing. A license is "A right given by some competent authority to do an act, which without such authority would be illegal." (Bouvier's Law Dictionary) Man's right to freely travel in his own vehicle has been robbed from him. Now that act is illegal, needing a competent authority to authorize such 'law' breaking.

Mike, Norwalk
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Mike, Norwalk Mike, Norwalk 6/27/19

More on license: “A personal privilege to do some particular act or series of acts ⋯ The permission by competent authority to do an act which, without such permission would be illegal, a trespass, a tort, or otherwise not allowable.” (Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition); or, in other words: license is a privilege to break certain laws with a pass from being prosecuted. By Constitutional law and Supreme court decision: “The right of a citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, by horse drawn carriage, wagon, or automobile, is not a mere privilege which may be permitted or prohibited at will, but a common right which he has under his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Under this constitutional guarantee one may, therefore, under normal conditions, travel at his inclination along the public highways or in public places, and while conducting himself in an orderly and decent manner, neither interfering with nor disturbing another’s rights, he will be protected, not only in his person, but in his safe conduct.” (Thompson v. Smith, 154 SE 579) Further, Constitutionally (concerning privilege prohibition by/with Titles of Nobility see: Articles IV Section 4, Article IX Section 8 and Article X U.S. Constitution), A “Title of Nobility” was/is: “To confer a title of nobility, is to nominate to an order of persons to whom privileges are granted ⋯ It is not necessarily hereditary, and the objection to it arises more from the privileges supposed to be attached, than to the otherwise empty title or order.” (Horst v. Moses 48 Ala. 129, 142 (1872)

E Archer, NYC

I like it. So the politicians of today observe no limit to the debt they can load upon the country so that they can keep buying votes. Once the shell game collapses, they will all be tarred and feathered or worse. They are merely delaying the inevitable by turning us all into dependents. But eventually the paper will be worthless. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

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