Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2014-12-09 Dec 9, 2014Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.~ Lao-TzuThere is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits.~ Thomas Babington MacaulayWhile the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.~ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Dec 8, 2014If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.~ Henry David ThoreauThe essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders.~ Ludwig Von MisesMan exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the State.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Dec 5, 2014But to manipulate men, to propel them toward goals which you – the social reformers – see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them.~ Isaiah BerlinAll 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?~ Herbert SpencerThis is the gravest danger that today threatens civilization: State intervention, the absorption of all spontaneous social effort by the State; that is to say, of spontaneous historical action, which in the long-run sustains, nourishes and impels human destinies.~ José Ortega y Gasset Dec 4, 2014Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.~ Eric HofferSocialism means equality of income or nothing... under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.~ George Bernard ShawA man’s liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will be benefited.~ Herbert Spencer Dec 3, 2014A committee is a group of individuals who all put in a perfectly good color, and it comes out gray.~ Alan ShermanSocialism is but Catholicism addressing itself not to the soul but to the sense of men... [Both implore you to] accept authority, accept the force which it employs, resign yourself to all-powerful managers, give up the free choice and the free act... They both seek to sacrifice man.~ Auberon HerbertThose who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.~ Benjamin Franklin Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print