Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2017-10-25 Oct 25, 2017It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men. ~ H. L. MenckenAll men by nature are equal in that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man; being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.~ John LockeSince when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? ~ Justice William O. Douglas Oct 24, 2017Nothing can be more readily disproved than the old saw, "You can't keep a good man down." Most human societies have been beautifully organized to keep good men down.~ John W. GardnerIt is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.~ Justice Robert H. JacksonDo what thy manhood bids thee do, From none but self expect applause: He noblest lives and noblest dies Who makes and keeps his self-made laws.~ Sir Richard Francis Burton Oct 23, 2017Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force -- and statism has always been the political corollary of collectivism.~ Ayn RandThose who believe themselves to be masters of all they survey are mistaken. There is no such thing as absolute power and the delusion that one is in possession of such power constitutes absolute corruption. This delusion leads, resolutely, to the downfall of its adherents.~ Daniel PouzznerPeople unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.~ Eric Hoffer Oct 20, 2017Force always attracts men of low morality. ~ Albert EinsteinThey said it couldn't be done but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.~ Casey StengelThe preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power. But there is also a constructive reason. The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.~ Milton Friedman Oct 19, 2017The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth -- that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.~ H. L. Mencken‘Balanced’ is a code for ‘denied’: a right to free speech that must be ‘balanced’ against so exhaustive a list of other supposed values means a right that can be exercised only when those in power judge that the speech in question is innocuous to them.~ Ronald DworkinEvery reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print