Authoritarian governmental approaches
hamper problem-solving abilities.
They typically involve one-size-fits-all solutions
like travel bans and mask mandates.
Once governments adopt coercive policies,
power-hungry bureaucrats
often spout an official party line
and suppress dissent, no matter the evidence,
and impose further sanctions to punish
those who don’t fall in line.
Once coercion is set in motion,
it’s hard to backtrack.
David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper
“Coercion Made the Pandemic Worse,” in The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2021.
The opportunity cost to society
of taking from expanding industries
the scarce investment capital needed
to modernize declining textile and apparel industries
is likely to be so high
that the use of antiquated machinery by declining firms
is perfectly efficient.
Declining industries are always a sorry sight.
Individuals who have not studied economics
tend to blame the plight of such industries
on their antiquated equipment
and on the shortsighted management responsible for it.
Economists see the equipment as the effect rather than the cause
of the industry's decline.
Steven Rhoads
The Economic View of the World: And the Quest for Well-Being, 1985, 2021
In markets the situation is just the opposite [from politics].
People cooperate only when they gain from trade
on some specific good or service.
When a person buys gasoline at a filling station, for example,
whether the gas station attendant favors higher or lower taxes
is irrelevant to the transaction.
Similarly, nobody enters a transaction at a department store
contingent on whether the cashier has
the same views on abortion as the purchaser.
The only relevant issues are whether the purchaser wants to make the particular purchase
and whether the seller is willing to sell.
Nobody asks, or even cares,
about the political views of those with whom they do business.
Their interests simply are to complete the transaction
as easily as possible.
Market exchange, by its very nature, fosters cooperation,
even among people who disagree about almost everything.
Randy Holcombe
Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History, 2019.
The expense-check envelope in the car was full,
so he bought a .38 revolver;
a gently used Smith & Wesson with a three-inch barrel
so it wouldn’t kick as much as a snub nose.
It is hard to go wrong with one of those;
simple to operate,
and ammo is relatively cheap and plentiful.
He went out to the gravel pit.
It shot beautifully.
He loved it.
He had fallen back in love with guns.
Glen Tate
299 Days: The Preparation, 2012.
Liberty and transparency are not the culprits.
It is the walls against trade, the walls that impede the flow of goods and ideas,
that preserve poverty and prevent growth.
If you want to get rid of the big injustices,
if you want to bring better opportunities –
for all the inhabitants of the globe –
you’ve got to pull those walls down.
Tomas Larsson
The Race to the Top, 2001.
The ideals and instruments of Puritanism are simply unworthy of a free people, and,
being unworthy, are soon found intolerable.
Its hatreds, fanaticisms, inaccessibility to ideas;
its inflamed and cancerous interest in the personal conduct of others;
its hysterical disregard of personal rights;
its pure faith in force, and above all,
its tyrannical imposition of its own Kultur:
these characterize and animate a civilization
that the general experience of mankind at once condemns as impossible,
and as hateful as it is impossible.
Albert Jay Nock
Essay: ”Prohibition and Civilization,” 1916
As reprinted in Liberty Fund’s collection of Nock’s essays , The State of the Union: Essays in Social Criticism, 1991.
Descriptive terms which people use are often quite misleading.
In talking about modern captains of industry and leaders of big business, for instance,
they call a man a “chocolate king” or a “cotton king” or an “automobile king.”
Their use of such terminology implies that they see practically no difference
between the modern heads of industry
and those feudal kings, dukes, or lords of earlier days.
But the difference is in fact very great,
for a chocolate king does not rule at all, he serves.
He does not reign over conquered territory,
independent of the market, independent of customers.
The chocolate king—or the steel king or the automobile king
or any other king of modern industry--
depends on the industry he operates and on the customers he serves.
This “king” must stay in the good graces of his subjects, the consumers;
He loses his “kingdom” as soon as he is no longer in a position
to give his customers better service
and to provide it at lower cost than others with whom he must compete.
Ludwig von Mises
Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow, 1958, 1979.
"My name's Harper," he said. "What's yours?"
I told him.
"ID?"
I took out my license and my carry permit. The black cop looked at it.
"You carrying a weapon now?" he said.
"Yes," I said.
"I'll hold on to it for a while," he said.
I opened my coat so he could see the gun.
"You can take it out," Harper said. "Just go easy."
I took the gun off my hip and handed it to him.
It was a short-barreled .38 revolver. Reliable. Easy to carry.
"You hit anything with this," Harper said.
"Ten, fifteen feet," I said.
"All you need," Harper said, and put the gun in a pocket of his uniform jacket.
Robert B. Parker
The Professional, 2009.
To develop one's judgment properly,
one first needs the freedom to make decisions for oneself,
because judgment, like other skills,
must be practiced to develop.
But one must also be held responsible for one's decisions,
because it is through feedback--
negative or positive, as the case may be--
that one learns to correct, hone, and develop one's judgment.
James Otteson
Seven Deadly Economic Sins, 2021.
Taylor said, "We're not moving. This place is a stronghold."
"Three dinensionally it's fine," Reacher said.
"But battles are fought in four dimensions, not three.
Length, breadth and height,
plus time.
And time is on Lane's side, not ours.
We're going to run out of food,
and sooner or later all four of us
are going to be asleep at the same time."
Lee Child
The Hard Way, 2006.
[T]he power which a . . . millionaire, who may be
In any case, private boondoggles
Higher prices charged have a couple of unappreciated benefits.
“Is there such a matter before us?” I said.
Under a system of free markets,
Authority has every reason
John Harrison: When you're young, you think everything's possible.
The whole aim of practical politics
The fog comes
There’s no getting blood
How can you govern a country that has
Fiat justitia et ruant coeli.
He had heard people
Three o’clock is always
Welcome to Tennessee!
I strongly recommend that you judge the teacher
No government has the right
"So you've learned all that
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
Follow your inclinations
[I]f called by a panther,
"I had a friend a long time ago
People learn from their own mistakes,
As if were not enough to argue
The Tariff is one of the greatest obstacles
The price of freedom is the willingness
I desire this afternoon to discuss only the question
"Gold is the enemy of the state."
Adopting a socialist system
Fuzzy thinking
"Howdy there, good looking," he said.
I had the Browning out of its holster
Trade and commerce civilize.
I was never molested by any person
Briefly, the State is that organization in society
from the Bowler Hat scene:
Entrepreneurs, in my opinion,
Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy
"What the hell was that?" Lloyd asked. "An Alien?"
"After that you were a policeman."
The proper antidote to bigotry, then,
Ahmed Ibn Fahdian: [given a Viking sword]: I cannot lift this.
"You ready for some lunch?"
Even now my memory of Jud on that night
The clerk . . . endorsed and stamped their papers.
We should not expect our government schools
You think me "impractically idealistic" to hold politicians
"Frank," remarked Jim when Smythe was gone,
I nodded and went to work on the heavy bag,
Abigail Chase: What led you to asume there's this invisible map?
"Dogs do not respect
Why does it matter for Objectivists
Had government monopolized light bulb production, for example,
Herger the Joyous: We shall pray for your safe return!
One activity marks the state more than any other
Coincidence exists
In order to live, man must act;
"What do you know about Stratton?" I said.
The worship of the state
May the smoke be with you.
Syrio Florel: You are fearing for your father, hmmm?
I would love to see the day
People try nonviolence for a week,
The only alternative to persuasion
Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?
"Is she safe?"
I got directions from Sedale and walked on down toward Canterbury Farms.
He could find the dark cloud
The essential feature of government
"Do you think I should have told them
"That's the trouble with crime."
Distrust any speaker who talks confidently about "we,"
It is our choices, Harry,
She smiled.
There is no safety in ignorance.
Harry Potter wasn't a normal boy.
"[A]ddiction,"
Reaching out to others
Inara:
Custom has the enviable power,
The right to be let alone
The danger is not that a particular class
The limits of tyrants
"He is an earnest man of piecemeal convictions.
I plugged a Johnny Hartman tape into the stereo
Edgar Cullis could not contest this assertion.
The point about complexity
I welcomed the blizzard,
I contemplate with sovereign reverence
"Why do you want to know all this?
None loves the messenger
Fear is what you feel
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts,
I fear the Greeks
Requests are received as demands
Society is produced by our wants,
It is the besetting vice of democracies
A free society cherishes non-conformity.
"You look like the dragon won today."
It has been often said
I had rather be shut up
The most dangerous man, to any government,
"Truth walks toward us on the paths of our questions."
I have a friend who's an artist
Il est defendu de tuer;
It is forbidden to kill;
If a nation values anything more than freedom,
A boy adopts a hero for two reasons:
Sitting across from her, Jesse could feel her energy.
Even people like me who are familiar with chimps
In the broadest sense, the press means all media of communications--
Those who expect
It has often and confidently been asserted,
Il vaut mieux hasarder de sauver un coupable
It is better to risk sparing a guilty person
"My crew is honest,
"You missed a golden opportunity," I said.
Anyway, I have to argue about flying saucers
Either the people in a relationship
"Well, don't hold out on us.
He closed his eyes
En general, l'art du gouvernement
In general, the art of government
I don't know what's the matter with people;
Self-sufficiency
"You look different."
"Do you think I could be quite wrong?"
It goes without saying that we are fallible.
The next time you are tempted
According to Marx,
He frowned down at the boy:
The French are professional sensualists.
"You're not a stranger;
She noticed the spurning of the Marmite.
Aime la verite,
Love truth,
I have never been able to conceive
[I]n Russia the terrific fear of the young girl worker
"I have to avoid chocolate apparently.
Reading is a habit;
Isabel smiled.
"Daddy boxed in college, you know."
Instead of rushing through our lives to get somewhere--
Sandrine picked a flower and started pulling off its petals.
May you hover like butterflies
If we were left solely
That so few now dare
I'm not confused,
It may then be seen
It could be shown
One thing that doesn't abide by majority rule
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
Curiosity is one of the most
She returned to the kitchen and switched on the radio.
I join those in opinion
Dancing begets warmth,
"Goddammit," Hanson said. "We can fire you.
Never has so much false arithmetic
A cult is
Mirian: "I guess I can put two and two together."
Now, ye want to know
A sweet disorder in the dress
Sam: "There are a lot of ways to make the world a better place
War is the health of the State.
I regard smuggling as a right and proper activity.
"You don't know that," said Molly.
"Hell, we've got them cornered," Jesse said.
"Look Sam, I hope it won't offend you, but--"
Libertarianism is, of course, first and foremost a political idea--
"What do you think?" I asked.
Nothing is lost
After centuries of bloody wars
Whenever students are involved in planning what they will be doing,
As NVC [nonviolent communication] replaces our old patterns
No matter how rational or intelligent one may be,
Our emotions and sensations inform us
Youth cannot know
Political freedom is the corollary
The direct use of physical force
Many people believe down deep:
Why would the governments estimate
No matter in what area we look, then,
It is a deformity in some "radicals"
The key to fostering connection
Punishment is at the root of violence on our planet.
First question: What do we want the other person to do?
What is the second question?
Happiness is the legal tender of the soul.
The plot thickens.
In our own society
"Nothing clears up a case
Individuals are kind and decent . . .
"You were a tramp, weren't you . . . ?"
The more a man knows,
Good teaching
Jefferson helped enshrine liberty in the American consciousness. [K]eep your bow.
Here we subscribe to the ethos
The either-or fallacy
The impetus for this book is Libertarianism.
It is a curious anomaly.
I had us moved into a corner
It is time that we squarely face the fact
The weary yeare his race now hauing run,
Raise your glass.
There is a name for a society where only the police have guns.
The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety
If we had no other means to judge the Nazi doctrines,
Government is a dirty business.
There is an old saying among the Oaxacanos:
[B]uzzards have a pact
I want it to be understood at the core of the society
Censorship is an ancient evil,
Oh, "tanstaafl." Means "There ain't no such thing
Men are whipped oftenest
"Are you trying to get me drunk?"
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society,
A good heart will help you
Ira furor brevis est.
But it is not the capital employed
School is a twelve-year jail sentence
I thundered hot water into the big tub,
It is because peaceful agitation and passive resistance
Why is our government
The more one's vocabulary
In wine-drinking cultures,
A cucumber should be well sliced,
Certain people never learn
Nothing is so useless
The Libertarian Creed rests upon one central axiom:
Let no one put off studying philosophy when he is young,
Government's a disease
The alternative is not
But the other vitality is still there,
my neighbor and perhaps my employer,
has over me is very much less
than that which the smallest functionaire possesses
who wields the coercive power of the state
and on whose discretion it depends whether and how
I am to be allowed to live or to work . . ."
F.A. Hayek
have one big advantage over public ones;
they don't force uninvolved taxpayers to pay for them.
Steven Rhoads
The Economist's View of the World: And the Quest for Well-Being, 1985.
First, they get people to economize on the use of the good whose price has risen.
That is higher prices reduce demand and encourage conservation.
That helps with the disaster.
With higher prices, profit-seeking suppliers know that they can make more money
by bringing additional quantities of the goods to the market.
This increases the supply of goods, which helps to drive prices back down.
Anti-price gouging laws disrupt these two very important functions of the marketplace
and enhance and prolong a disaster.
In other words, in a disaster, we want people to economize their use of goods and services
and we want suppliers of these goods and services to produce more.
Rising prices encourage these actions.
Anti-price gouging laws stymy those incentives
and create the pretense that a disaster does not exist.
Walter Williams
Column: “Managing a Disaster,” April 1, 2020.
He took in some air and let it out audibly.
“There is,” he said.
“And it requires discretion,” I said.
“Very much.”
“You’ll get all I can give you,” I said.
All you can give me?”
“Anything,” I said, “that your best interest,
and my self-regard, will allow.”
“Your ‘self-regard'?”
“I try not to do things
that make me think ill of myself.”
“My God,” Prince said.
“I mean, that’s a laudable goal, I suppose.
But you are a private detective.”
“All the more reason for vigilance,” I said.
Robert B. Parker
Painted Ladies, 2010.
each consumer makes his own choices.
Under planning, at least some choices must be subject to the ‘general will’.
In making these choices,
the planners will inevitably impose a code of values on the rest of the populace.
Whatever choices are finally made,
some members of the society will be made better off and some worse off.
Since planners are political appointees who wish to retain power,
they will seek ways to justify the choices that they have made.
Those who support their choices will be rewarded,
and those who oppose them will be sanctioned:
“Planning becomes necessarily a planning in favour of some and against others.”
In this way authoritarian government
tends inevitably to expand beyond the economic and into the political domain.
Liberty ends up being sacrificed,
even under forms of socialism that may have started out as democratic.
Only if democracy is allied with the freedom of choice that inheres in a free market system
will it have some hope of survival.
F.A. Hayek
Socialism and War, 1997.
to fear the skeptic;
for authority can rarely survive
in the face of doubt.
Robert Lindner
Must You Conform? 1956
But as you grow older, you discover that it isn't.
Lieutenant John Campbell: Well then, don't grow older, Mr. Harrison.
From the movie written by Dava Sobel and Charles Sturridge
Longitude, 1999.
is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins,
most of them imaginary.
H.L. Mencken
In Defense of Women, 1918
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Carl Sandburg
Chicago Poems, 1916
out of a turnip.
Frederick Marryat
Japhet in Search of a Father, 1836
two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?
Charles de Gaulle
Quoted in Les Mots du Général, by Ernest Mignon, 1962
Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
William Watson
A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions Concerning Religion and State (1602)
speak contemptuously of money:
he wondered if they had ever tried
to live without it.
W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage, 1915
too late or too early
for anything you want to do.
Jean-Paul Satre
Nausea, 1938.
We have lots of guns.
We love to shoot our guns.
We'd be more than happy
to teach you to do the same.
Try it, you might like it.
P.A. Glaspy
When the Peace is Gone, 2017.
by the standards you would judge any teacher.
How do they convey the concepts
that underlie the movement they are teaching?
Do they have a good grasp of language?
Do they show that they realise
how different our bodies are from theirs?
Do they give adequate respect for the fact that,
in our own lives,
we are as competent and gifted in our own skills
as they are in theirs?
Do they grasp that when we attend
a class in our spare time,
we are giving a lot after we gave our all
in our regular lives.
Can they see how to marry our unrealistic expectations
with our realities?
Or are they just taking our money and offering us
snake oil?
David Turner
The 10 Big Mistakes People Make When They Learn to Tango, 2012
to decide on the truth of scientific principles,
nor to prescribe in any way
the character of the questions investigated.
Neither may a government determine
the aesthetic value of artistic creations,
nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expressions.
Nor should it pronounce on the validity
of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines.
Instead it has a duty to its citizens
to maintain the freedom,
to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure
and the development of the human race.
Richard Feynman
"The Uncertainity of Values," (1963) published in The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, 1998.
from this philosophical book?" I asked as we descended
toward the road that led to our neighborhood.
"Yes, and much more.
You know how when you buy something
it comes with instructions?"
I nodded. "Like a user manual."
"Right. Well, I think of philosophy
as a manual for life," she said,
tapping the book she was holding.
"I think everyone should read philosophy."
Tal Tsfany
Sophie, 2017.
can always depend
on the support of Paul.
George Bernard Shaw
Everybody's Political What's What? 1944.
with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage, 1915.
Don't anther.
Ogden Nash
The Face Is Familiar: The Selected Verses of Ogden Nash, 1941
who taught me about honesty and integrity.
She told me once that honesty
is being true to the world and how it works,
and integrity
is being true to yourself and how you work."
Tal Tsfany
Sophie, 2017
but smart people learn from other people's mistakes.
Fernando "FerFAL" Aguirre
The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse, 2009
that free trade has lifted millions out of poverty,
strengthened human rights and democracy,
and spread peace,
let me make one more bold claim:
Free trade and globalization encourage individuals
to behave in better ways.
The same "invisible hand" that turns our personal drive for betterment
to the public's benefit
also shapes our characters.
The commercial and personal interactions with people from other countries
that have come with globalization
teach us tolerance, sympathy, humility, prudence, trustworthiness,
and a spirit of service to our fellow human beings.
Dan Griswold
Mad about Trade, 2009
all over the earth today
to international peace.
From its very nature
it tends to emphasize political boundaries
and to perpetuate national and race hatreds.
The arguments in its behalf
must constantly make a wide distinction
between home goods and foreign goods.
This of necessity tends to perpetuate and intensify
the association of "foreigner" with "foe."
Lee Francis Lybarger
The Tariff, 1914
to do sudden battle,
everywhere, anytime,
and with utter recklessness.
Robert A. Heinlein
Double Star, 1956
of the power claimed by the President
to send troops anywhere in the world
and involve us in any war in the world
and involve us in any war in which
he chooses to involve us.
I wish to assert the powers of Congress,
and to point out that Congress has the power
to prevent any such action by the President;
that he has no such power under the Constitution;
and that it is incumbent upon the Congress
to assert clearly its own constitutional powers
unless it desires to lose them. . . .
If in the great field of foreign policy
the President has arbitrary and unlimited power, as he now claims,
then there is an end to freedom in the United States
in a great realm of domestic activity which affects,
in the long run,
every person in the United States.
Senator Robert A. Taft, aka Mr. Republican (R, Ohio)
Speech in US Senate, March 29, 1951
David Stockman, quoted in,
Doug Casey's International Man, January 10, 2020
is like turning your whole economy
into a giant Department of Motor Vehicles.
Robert Lawsom and Benjamin Powell
Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World, 2019
always benefits
the status quo.
George H. Smith
Introduction to The State, by Franz Oppenheimer, (1997 edition)
She cocked an eyebrow at him.
"You greet all the women that way?"
"Pretty much," he said.
"I cast a wide net."
"What the hell you want?"
Lloyd frowned.
"Ain't much of a conversationalist are you?"
"Nope. Pretty much anyone that knows me would agree."
"We'll need to work on that," he said.
"I like a woman who chuckles at witticisms."
Franklin Horton
No Time for Mourning, 2017.
and in my right-hand coat pocket,
because if the Death Dragons did, in fact,
protest my presence,
it would be embarrassing if my gun
was out of the rain, dry and cozy,
zipped up under my jacket.
Robert B. Parker
Walking Shadow, 1994
Trade and commerce unite people.
Trade and commerce break down superstitions by exposing people who hold them to other ideas.
Trade and commerce teach and enlighten.
Trade and commerce enrich, both materially and ethically.
Trade and commerce promote peace.
Trade and commerce create society.
One of the most regrettable, repeated patterns of human thought
is the notion that greatness and glory are found in the successful use of brute strength --
in the strong or the best-weaponed subjugating others and restricting their freedom of thought and action.
And when this brute strength, being successfully established as a ruler
is cloaked in ermine, housed in marble buildings and called by grand titles,
it is worshipped as something super-human and (at least semi-) divine.
Too many people laud and celebrate military conquerors
as well as state officials who extended and increased the power of the state.
It's a childish and destructive sentiment.
Don Boudreaux
"Cafe Hayek," August 7, 2017
but those who represented the State.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden, Or, Life in the Woods, 1854
which attempts to maintain a monopoly
of the use of force and violence
in a given territorial area;
in particular, it is the only organization in society
that obtains its revenue
not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered
but by coercion.
The State obtains its revenue by the use of compulsion;
that is, by the use and the threat
of the jailhouse and the bayonet.
Murray Rothbard
"Anatomy of the State," in
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays, 1974.
Detective Parette: "Whatta we do? Whatta we do?"
Detective Michael McCann: "Start arresting people."
Thomas Crown Affair, 1999.
Directed by John McTiernan
Screenplay by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer
are the heroes of the world.
Skyler J. Collins
Toward a Free Society: A Short Guide on Building a Culture of Liberty, 2015
because you have nothing to hide
is no different than saying
you don't care about free speech
because you have nothing to say.
Edward Snowden
Suddenly Snowden on Reddit, May 21, 2015
"A drone," Jim replied.
"I definitely think it's the cops.
They must be using that drone to do recon."
"For what?"
"To look for resources and see what people are up to.
It's a hell of a lot safer for them to send that drone out
than to let officers go knocking on people's doors
under the current circumstances.
Someone would probably get shot.
It also uses less fuel."
"That Big Brother stuff makes me paranoid.
I was happier thinking it was an alien," Lloyd said.
Franklin Horton
Legion of Despair, 2016
Nod.
"This presents a small problem:
you were dismissed.
Could you comment, please, on that."
"I am trustworthy, loyal and helpful.
But I struggle with obedient."
Robert B. Parker
Paper Doll, 1993.
is rationality, including the commitment
to a fully conceptual mode of functioning.
How else could one come to understand the injustice of discriminating
among people on the basis of morally irrelevant characteristics?
How else could one understand trade
as the proper principle for human relationships,
and benevolence as a precondition for trade?
David Kelley
Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence, 2003
Herger the Joyous: Grow stronger.
The 13th Warrior, 1999.
"Since breakfast," I said.
Robert B. Parker
Stardust, 1990
was that of a laughing man--
a man who at any moment in the exuberance of his feelings
gave the impression he might pick me up
and whirl me around
in his delight that I was a woman
and he was a man.
Robert H. Rimmer
Come Live My Life, 1977.
He stuck them in the stat machine, then handed them back.
"That'll be five pounds."
Pollux converted the figure in his head and swore under his breath;
he was beginning to think that Mars
was the Land of the Fee.
Robert A. Heinlein
The Rolling Stones, 1952.
to provide an unbiased study and a full understanding
of our involvement in foreign wars.
But that will come as alternatives to government schools,
with their federal government controls, develop.
Ron Paul
Swords into Plowshares, 2015.
to the same moral standards to which we hold private citizens.
Government, in your view,
"must deal with monumental affairs" --
monumental affairs whose successful management, you believe,
requires that government officials
"follow Machiavelli's practical advice."
It is an odd argument that insists that,
politicians should therefore be held to lower moral standards.
I reject this argument.
Don Boudreaux
"No Excuse-Making," Cafe Hayek, August 13, 2015
"there is something about that guy I don't like."
. . .
"He reminds me of something Doc used to say.
'Every law that was ever written
opened up a new way to graft.'"
Robert A Heinlein
Red Planet, 1949.
circled it, keeping my head bobbing, punching in flurries--different combinations.
It wasn't like the real thing.
But it helped to groove the movements so that when you did the real thing,
muscle memory took over.
Robert B. Parker
Paper Doll, 1993.
Ben Gates: We found an engraving on the stem of a 200-year-old pipe.
Riley Poole: Owned by the Free Masons.
Abigail Chase: May I see the pipe?
Ben Gates: We don't actually have it.
Abigail Chase: Did Bigfoot take it?
National Treasure, 2004
one's sleeping space much," I said.
"Did we sleep curled up on one small corner of the bed
while the three pooches spread out luxuriously?" Susan said.
"I wanted them to feel at home," I said.
"We need to be very clear on one thing.
When I visit, we are not sleeping with three dogs."
"No." I said.
"And when we make love
we are not going to be watched by three dogs."
"Of course not," I said.
Robert B. Parker
Stardust, 1990.
to recognize benevolence as a major virtue?
It matters because of the importance to us
of the values we gain from others:
economic exchange, the communication of knowledge,
and the reaffirmation of our own identity.
These are all forms of trade among individuals,
and to live by trade requires
benevolence as well as justice.
David Kelley
Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence, 2003.
we'd be told that the private sector couldn't possible produce light bulbs.
The private sector won't produce the size or wattage people want,
critics would insist.
The private sector won't produce specialty bulbs with only a limited market,
since there would be little profit in that.
The private sector will produce dangerous, exploding bulbs.
And so on.
Since we have lived with private light bulbs all along,
these objections seem laughable to use.
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto, 2014
Ahmed Ibn Fahdian: Pray to whom?
Herger the Joyous:In your land one God may be enough,
but here we have need of many.
I will pray to all of them for you.
Do not be offended!
Ahmed Ibn Fahdian: I'll be in your debt!
Herger the Joyous: Goodbye, Arab!
Ahmed Ibn Fahdian: Goodbye, Northman.
The 13th Warrior, 1999.
as the enemy of liberty,
and it is here that supporters of liberty
must concentrate their efforts.
The activity, of course, is waging war.
David Gordon
Introduction to Second Edition of Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, by Murray N. Rothbard, 2000
but believing in it
never did me any good.
Robert Parker
Pale Kings and Princes, 1987
in order to act, he must make choices;
in order to make choices, he must define a code of values;
in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is--
i.e., he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge)
and the nature of the universe in which he acts--
i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy.
Ayn Rand
The Romantic Manifesto, 1969.
"Anything I don't?"
Farrell looked tired. He shook his head.
"Just what I read in the papers,
and if you've ever been involved in something the papers wrote up,
you know better than to trust them."
Robert B. Parker
Paper Doll, 1993.
is the worship of force.
Ludwig von Mises
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War, 1944
Bob Hart
Heat & Smoke: Mastering the Dark Art of Real Barbecue, 2011
That is right.
Do you pray to the gods?
Arya Stark: The old and the new.
Syrio Florel: There is only one god
and his name is Death,
and there is only one thing we say to Death:
"Not today."
George R.R. Martin
Game of Thrones, 1996
when parents react to a child's announcement
that he or she is going into politics
with the same horror and shame that would overcome them
if their child were to announce
that he or she is going into armed robbery.
Don Boudreaux
www.cafehayek.com, March 20, 2014
and when it doesn't "work"
they go back to violence,
which hasn't worked for centuries.
Theodore Roszak
Quoted in The Steps of Nonviolence, by Micahel Nagler. 1999.
is coercion.
Ron Paul
The School Revolution, 2013
Luke: I'm looking for someone.
Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?
Luke: Right...
Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
Luke: I don't think so. I'm looking for a great warrior.
Yoda: Ohhh. Great warrior.
[laughs and shakes his head]
Yoda: Wars not make one great.
George Lucas
The Empire Strikes Back, 1980
"No, no not at all, but she's in good health," Hellibolt said.
"Dammit man, you told me Kasiria would be safe
as long as I allowed her to follow her will."
"No, I believe I said she would live.
You never truly live
if you're always safe," Hellibolt said.
Selina Rosen
Jabone's Sword, 2010
The racing stable was across town,
but in Alton
across town was not a voyage of discovery.
Robert B. Parker
Paper Doll, 1993.
under virtually any silver lining.
John Gaspard
The Ambitious Card, 2013
is the enforcement of its decrees
by beating,
killing
and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference
are asking ultimately
for more compulsion and less freedom.
Ludwig von Mises
Human Action, 1949.
about that voice I heard?"
"No," said Ron, without hesitation.
"Hearing voices no one else can hear
isn't a good sign,
even in the wizarding world."
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999
He smiled.
"The company's bad."
Louis L'Amour
The Ferguson Rifle, 1973
or speaks in the name of "us."
Distrust yourself if you hear these tones
creeping into your own style.
The search for security and majority
is not always the same as solidarity;
it can be another name for
consensus and tyranny and tribalism
Christopher Hitchens
letters to a young contrarian, 2001
that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999
The smile made me want to say Oh boy,
but I'm too worldly
to say it out loud.
Robert B. Parker
The Judas Goat, 1978
Massad Ayoob
Gun Proof Your Children, 1986
As a matter of fact,
he was as not normal
as it is possible to be.
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999.
this is a word
attached to any habitual behaviors
of others
we do not like.
Jeffrey Tucker
"The Myth of the Cell-Phone Addiction," in
Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo, 2010.
often becomes the first step
back to human reality.
When someone then responds with love and caring
the recovery process is on its way.
But this rarely happens in the psychiatric system.
When a patient reaches out,
the psychiatrist puts a pill in the hand.
Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love
Must Replace the Drugs, Electrochock, and Biochemical Theories
of the "New Psychiatry," 1991
What did I say to you
Mal:
That it was manly and impulsive?
Inara:
Yes, precisely,
only the exact phrase I used was "don't."
Joss Whedon
from, "The Train Job," Firefly: The Official Companion, 2006
of coming to conclusions
upon the most debatable points,
without a moment's consideration--
of turning propositions
of a very doubtful character
into axioms--
and of setting aside almost self-evident truths
as unworthy of consideration.
Herbert Spencer
The Proper Sphere of Government, 1842
is the underlying principle
of the Constitution's
Bill of Rights.
Erwin N. Griswold
Address, Northwestern University Law School, June 11, 1960
is unfit to govern;
every class is unfit to govern.
Lord Acton
April 24, 1881
are prescribed by the endurance
of those whom they suppress.
Frederick Douglass
Letter to Gerrit Smith, March 30, 1849
I do not believe he will grant himself
the time to examine them so closely
that he would see that no concordance
is possible among them."
Easley shook his head, "Oh, no, sir.
They must be in concordance, my good friend,
in some habit of way,
for otherwise he would go mad.
Perhaps you meant
that it is a harmonious unity of convictions
that he lacks."
Hugh laughed and threw up his hands.
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Three: Caxton, 2004.
on the assumption that it was never too soon
to start his education.
He paid no attention.
Robert B. Parker
Early Autumn, 1981
His knowledge of practical politics
lay in land patents and statutes.
His mind was not friendly to hypotheses . . . .
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Four: Empire, 2004
counts against government intervention, not for it.
The major contribution of F.A. Hayek to social theory
is to point out that the social order--
which extends to the whole of the world--
is far too complicated to be managed by bureaus,
but rather depends on the decentralized
knowledge and decisions of billions of market actors.
In other words, he gave new credibility
to the insight of classical liberals
that social order is self-managing
and can only be distorted by attempts to centrally plan.
Planning, ironically, leads to social chaos.
Jeffrey Tucker
Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo, 2010
with its ferocious winds
and deep, drifting snow.
This may be enough to keep the wolves,
also know as the Peacekeepers,
from my door.
Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, 2009
that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature
would make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibit the free exercise thereof,
thus building a wall of separation
between church and state.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to the Baptists of Danbury, connecticut, 1802
Furniture and everything?"
"It's good to know what you can.
I'm not sure even what I'm up to.
I'm just gathering information.
There's so much that I can't know,
and so many things I can't predict,
that I like to get everything I can in order
so that when the unpredictable stuff comes along
I can concentrate on that."
Robert B. Parker
Looking for Rachel Wallace, 1980
who brings bad news.
Sophocles
Antigone, circa 442 B.C.E.
when you wait for something bad to happen . . .
and fun is what you have
when you figure out
a way to make something good happen.
O.T. Nelson
The Girl Who Owned a City, 1975
nor even to found a school,
but so to love wisdom
as to live according to its dictates,
a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden, 1854
though bearing gifts.
Virgil
The Aenid, circa 19 B.C.E.
when others believe
they will be blamed
or punished
if they do not comply.
Marshall B. Rosenberg
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, 2005
and government by our wickedness.
Thomas Paine
Common Sense, 1776
to substitute public opinion
for law.
This is the usual form
in which the masses of men
exhibit their tyranny.
James Fenimore Cooper
The American Democrat, 1838
It knows that from a non-conformist, from the eccentric,
have come many of the great ideas of freedom.
Free society must fertilize the soil
in which non-conformity and dissent and individualism can grow.
Henry Steele Commager
Speech, National Conference on Adult Education, 1954.
Robert B. Parker
Looking for Rachel Wallace, 1980
that he who begins life
by stifling his convictions
is in a fair way to ending it
without any convictions to stifle.
John Morley
On Compromise, 1874
in a very modest cottage
with my books, my family and a few old friends . . .
than to occupy the most splendid post
which any human power can give.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to A. Donald, 1788
is the man who is able to think things out for himself,
without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.
Almost inevitably he come 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 even if he is not romantic personally
he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.
H.L. Mencken
A Mencken Chrestomathy, 1949
Maurice's voice once again echoed in her mind.
"As soon as you think you have the answer,
you have closed the path
and may miss valuable information.
Wait awhile in the stillness,
and do not rush to conclusions,
no matter how uncomfortable the unknowing."
Jacqueline Winspear
Maise Dobbs, 2003
and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with.
He'll hold up a flower and say,
"Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree.
But then he'll say,
"I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is.
But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull."
I think he's kind of nutty. . . .
There are all kinds of interesting questions
that come from a knowledge of science,
which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower.
It only adds.
I don't understand how it subtracts.
Richard Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think? 1988
tout meurtrier est puni,
a moins qu'il n'ait tue en grande compagnie,
et au son des trompettes.
therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers
and to the sound of trumpets.
Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
"Rights," 1771
it will lose its freedom;
and the irony of it is
that if it is comfort or money that it values more,
it will lose that too.
W. Somerset Maugham
Strictly Personal, 1941
because a hero captivates his soul
and serves as a projection of his innermost self;
and because a hero seems to have solved many problems
that may worry a boy,
or at least demonstrates the capacity to solve them.
The hero is an idealization of successful living,
even though he may die in a story.
The death may be gallant, brave, tragic, or perhaps even foolhardy.
But living or dead, a hero is the stylistic embodiement
of living on one's own terms--
noble terms, grand terms, exciting terms--
terms, in short, that complement any youth's
uncorrupted, untamed, unabridged projection
of what is possible to him in life.
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Two: Hugh Kendrick, 2002
There was a sense of intelligence
and of kinetic sensuality that radiated from her in equal portions.
"Are you thinking long thoughts?" Rita said.
"Mostly I'm thinking, wow."
"Good," Rita said. "I like wow."
Robert B. Parker
Stone Cold, 2003
barely even know there are two
"closest living relatives" to humans.
Like an embarrassing relative,
bonobos are frequestly missing from the family tree.
According to Microsoft Word's spell-checker
"bonobo" isn't even a word.
Vanessa Woods
Bonobo Handshake, 2010
newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television.
It includes every method by which men spread ideas and information.
The press is the profession that communicates knowledge.
Ayn Rand
Columbia University radio series, "Ayn Rand on Campus," aired 1962-1966
"The Role of a Free Press,"
Quoted in Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed,
Edited by Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, 2009
to reap the blessings of freedom must,
like men,
undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Thomas Paine
The American Crises, September 12, 1777
that man's origin can never be known;
but ignornace more frequently begets confidence
than does knowledge;
it is those who know little, and not those who know much,
who so positively assert
that this or that problem will never be solved
by science.
Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man, 1871
que de condamner un innocent.
than to condemn an innocent man.
Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
Zadig, 1747
but I won't vouch for the other passengers or for the limpets."
"Limpets, sir?"
"Never heard the term at Lion Key?" Ramshaw chuckled.
"That's our name for bureaucrats, and customs officials,
and other two-legged albatrosses."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk: Book Two: Hugh Kenrick, 2002
"For what?"
"To take off all your clothes
and make a martini and surprise me at the door."
"I thought of that," Susan said,
"but you don't like martinis."
"Oh," I said.
Robert B. Parker
Looking for Rachel Wallace, 1980
on the beach with people, you know.
And I was interested in this:
they keep arguing that it is possible.
And that's true. It is possible.
They do not appreciate that the problem
is not to demonstrate whether it's possible or not
but whether it's going on or not.
Richard Feynman
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, 1998
have the authority to establish
the conditions of their relationship (liberty)
or someone outside the relationship
has the authority to establish those conditions (mastery).
In principle, all relationships between contracting, consenting people
are personal, irrespective of the nature of those arrangements.
It is inconsistent to abhor
intrusion into relationships taking place in the bedroom,
while embracing intrusions into relationships
taking place in the boardroom, or vice versa.
Louis E. Carabini
Inclined to Liberty: The Futile Attempt to Suppress the Human Spirit,
2008
I throw a lot of investigative work your way."
"Yeah, and it's real exciting too, " I said.
"Don't knock it, money's good."
"Money's not everything, Jack," I said.
"Maybe not, but you ever try spending sex?"
"There's something wrong with that argument,"
I said, "but I can't think what right now.
I may call you later with my comeback."
Robert B. Parker
Early Autumn, 1981
and was asleep
before he could get his worries organized.
Robert A. Heinlein
Farnham's Freehold, 1964
consiste a prendre le plus d'argent
qu'on peut a un grande des citoyens,
pour le donner a une autre partie.
consists in taking as much money as possible
from one party of the citizens
to give to the other.
Francoise-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
"Money," 1770
they don't learn by understanding,
they learn by some other way--
by rote or something.
Their knowledge is so fragile.
Richard Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! 1985
is the road to poverty.
Russell Roberts
The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity, 2008
"In my former life, I was an actor."
"What's an actor?"
"An actor is a person who entertains others
by being someone else.
Sometimes he is paid with money;
other times, with rotten fruit."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk, 2001
That thought had occurred frequently.
Isabel's training as a philosopher
would have been in vain
had she not opened herself up to doubt.
Doubt was a constant,
a condition of her being.
"Often, " said Isabel thoughtfully.
Then she added, "But not now."
Alexander McCall Smith
The Right Attitude to Rain, 2006
With the best will in the world,
we can still make mistakes.
But reason--in the global sense in which I define it here--
offers us the possibility of self-correction.
That is one of its unique characteristics.
Other alleged paths to knowledge,
such as faith or feeling,
do not share this possibility;
that is, they lack an inbuilt self-correcting dynamism.
Sometimes they may disclose a truth,
sometimes not,
but they have no internal means
to distinguish,
no internal standard by which to detect error
or the way to its correction.
Nathaniel Branden
The Art of Living Consciously, 1997
to snap at someone
or cut in front of another driver,
consider whether you'd like to be in their story that evening.
Consider whether this is the kind of contribution
you'd like to make to their life.
Mary Mackenzie
Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing and Compassion, 2005
all the value of a good derives
from the labor that goes into its production.
This labor theory of value is in opposition
to the subjective theory of value,
which posits the value of a good or service
is determined by individuals,
regardless of the time and energy (labor)
that went into its production.
The labor theory of value is fallacious;
if it were not so,
one of my paintings (God forbid!)
would be as valuable
as one by Vincent van Gogh.
Louis E. Carabini
Inclined to Liberty: The Futile Attempt to Suppress the Human Spirit, 2008
"You don't believe in vaporous spirits, do you, Mr. Frake?"
"No sir," said the boy. "Not in any."
"Why not?"
"If they existed, nothing would make sense."
Edward Cline
Sparrowhawk, 2001
Debra Ollivier
What French Women Know about Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind, 2009
you're an old friend
we haven't know very long."
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
That, she said, was her test of acculturation.
Only the most determined of anglophiles would eat Marmite,
and not even all of those.
For the rest, it was an inexplicable British taste,
quite beyond sympathy.
Drinking lukewarm beer
and taking tea with lashings of milk were understandable,
even to a Texan for whom iced tea was only natural;
but to spread on one's toast
a salty black yeast paste
was beyond comprehension.
Alexander McCall Smith
The Right Attitude to Rain, 2006
mais pardonne a l'erreur.
but pardon error.
Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
Sept Discours en Vers sur l"Homme, (1738)
how any rational being
could propose happiness to himself
from the exercise of power over others.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to M.D. Tracy, 1811
is the fear of losing her job.
Once it is gone, it is almost impossible for her to get another job,
since under the collectivist state,
the government is the only employer.
And if the government has discharged you,
it is rather unreasonable to expect
the same boss to take you back again.
Ayn Rand
Interview on life in Russia, in the Boston Post, 1936
Quoted in Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed,
Edited by Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, 2009
And that's very hard.
Even the thought of chocolate is difficult for me.
It's such a yearning."
Isabel agreed with this.
"Chocolate involves major philosophical problems," she said.
"It shows us a lot about temptations and self-control."
She thought for a moment.
There was a lot that one might say about chocolate,
if one thought about it.
"Yes," she concluded, "chocolate is a great test, isn't it?"
Alexander McCall Smith
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, 2005
I think it should be a daily ritual,
like brushing your teeth. . . .
[W]e need to make time for books!
Alexandra Stoddard
Living a Beautiful Life, 1986
Listening to Derek had made her feel better.
There were countless injustices and difficulties in this world,
but small points of light too,
where the darkness was held back.
Alexander McCall Smith
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, 2005
"I know."
"Did you ever box?"
"I don't box," Jesse said. "I fight."
"What's the difference?"
"Rules," Jesse said.
Robert B. Parker
Stone Cold, 2003
instead of saving up real living for later--
I think it's important to remember
that each single day is all we have.
Single days experienced fully
add up to a lifetime lived deeply and well.
Today is your life--
not yesterday and not tomorrow.
If we have tomorrow,
it will be a gift,
but what we do today, right now,
will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows.
Alexandra Stoddard
Living a Beautiful Life, 1986
To my surprise, however, rather than the familiar refrain,
"He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not,"
Sandrine carefully intoned:
He loves me a little, a lot, passionately, madly, not at all"
(Il m'aime un peu, beaucoup, passionnement, a la folie, pas du tout).
I instantly thought that Sandrine was one clever little girl
until I learned that, no, this is the standard French refrain.
This is how French girls have been thinking about love forever:
He loves me a little.
A lot.
Passionately.
Madly.
Not at all.
How unfair. While we American girls
are stuck in the absolutes of total love or utter rejection,
the French girl is already primed to think
in nunaces and in an infinite gamut of romance.
Debra Ollivier
What French Women Know About Love, Sex and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind, 2009
and only land on flowers
that open to hold you.
Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
Love You Two, 2010
to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress
for our guidance,
uncorrected by the seasonal experience
and the effectual complaints of the people,
America would not long retain
her rank among the nations.
Henry David Thoreau
On the Duty of Civil Disodedience, 1849
to be eccentric,
marks the chief danger
of our time.
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty, 1859
I'm just well mixed.
Robert Frost
Wall Street Journal, August 5, 1969
that in obedience to principles and practice well understood,
true wine lovers sip their wine.
Every mouthful thus gives them
the sum total of pleasure
which they would not have enjoyed
had they swallowed it all at once.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Physiologie du Gout, 1825
by facts and figures
that there is no distinctly native
American criminal class
except Congress.
Mark Twain
Following the Equator, 1897
is a person's conscience.
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass, 1872
permanent and certain characteristics
of a vigorous intellect.
Samuel Johnson
"Rambler," no. 103, March, 1751
It was the end of a news programme,
and the world, as usual,
was in disarray.
Alexander McCall Smith
The Sunday Philosophy Club, 2004
who think a Bill of Rights necessary.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Edward Rutledge, 1788
which is the parent of wantonness.
Henry Fielding
Love in Several Masques, Act 3, scene 7, 1728
"You can," Jesse said.
"But you can't tell me what to do."
Robert B. Parker
Stone Cold, 2003
[been] employed on any subject
as that which has been employed
to persuade nations it is in their interest
to go to war.
Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782
a religion
with no political power.
Tom Wolfe
In Our Times, 1980
Nick: "Sometimes the answer's four," I said,
"and sometimes it's twenty-two."
Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man, 1934
how to get from here tae there.
Well, I'll tell ye.
It's verra simple: don't obey.
If someone give you orders, ignore them.
Don't obey anything
but your own judgment.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Robert Herrick
"Delight in Disorder," in
Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, 1648
without using the political process or the law.
. . .
I don't believe you make the world a better place by legislation.
You're just as likely to harm as you are to help.
And when you use legislation,
you discourgage the private actions that might do the job in a more effective way."
. . .
Laura: "This comes back to our old argument.
I don't want to wait for people to become better.
I'm not as patient as you."
Sam: "And I'm not as comfortable with coercion as you are."
Russell Roberts
The Invisible Heart, 2001
Randolph Bourne
Essay: "War Is the Health of the State," in
The State, 1918 (unfinished at his death).
The smuggler is brave enough
to defy the parasites in Whitehall
and hopefully smart enough
to outwit their minions.
Smuggling is a noble business, always has been.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
Peter, unable to think of a good answer,
settled for looking annoyed.
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Peter and the Starcatchers, 2004
"Can your people do the clerical work?"
"Am I the homicide commander?" Healy said.
"Can they do it fast?"
I am the homicide commander.
I am not God."
"I thought they were the same thing," Jesse said.
"Think how disappointed I am," Healy said.
Robert B. Parker
Stone Cold, 2003
"Very little offends me. Disagreement never offends me."
Russell Roberts
The Invisible Heart, 2001
based on respect for liberty and (therefore) opposition to the use of force.
Since nowadays government is the chief initiator of force--
mandating, prohibiting, taxing, censoring,
and in general intimidating and controlling at will--
libertarians are united in the desire to restrict government power.
Jon Osborne
Miss Liberty's Guide to Film and Video:
Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, 2001
"All my clients are innocent."
"Yeah," I said, "of something, anyway."
Robert B. Parker
The Godwulf Manuscript, 1973
that we do not first see as lost.
Terry Brooks
Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold, 1986
against power gone amok,
it is frightening how easily man casts his lot
with the authority of the uniform.
Robert H. Rimmer
Proposition Thirty-One, 1968
it is likely that good teaching is going on.
This planning involves real choices
and not simple preferences such as what color crayon to use,
or the order in which a set of topics will be discussed.
Students may be asked to select a topic for study,
to decide what resources they will need,
or to plan how they will present their findings to others.
People learn to make informed choices
by actually making informed choices.
Following directions
--even perfectly--
does not prepare people to make life choices
and deal with the consequences of those choices.
Dr. Martin Haberman
Star Teachers: The Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty, 2005
of defending, withdrawing, or attacking in the face of judgment and criticism,
we come to perceive ourselves and others,
as well as our intentions and relationships,
in a new light.
Resistance, defensiveness, and violent reactions are minimized.
When we focus on clarifying what is being
observed, felt, and needed
rather than on diagnosing and judging,
we discover the depth of our our own compassion.
Through its emphasis on deep listening--
to ourselves as well as others--
NVC fosters respect, attentiveness, and empathy,
and engenders a mutual desire to give from the heart.
Marshall B. Rosenberg
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, 2005
one cannot always attain certain knowledge
of the consequences of one's actions.
. . .
This uncertainity, which is an inherent part of life,
does not change the principles of moral action.
The race is not always to the swift,
or success to the rational--
but that's the way to bet.
Ronald E. Merrill
The Ideas of Ayn Rand, 1991
about the status of our needs.
Pleasurable emotions,
like joy, excitement or delight,
tell us that some of our needs have been met
or we believe they will be.
Painful emotions,
like fear, anger, sadness, hurt or embarrassment,
tell us that some of our needs aren't met,
or we believe they won't be.
Wayland Myers
Nonviolent Communication: The Basics As I Know and Use Them, 1998
how age thinks and feels.
But old men are guilty
if they forget
what it was to be young.
Professor Albus Dumbledore in
J.K. Rowling's
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003
of economic freedom.
. . .
If individuals are not free
to buy and sell on the market,
they turn into virtual slaves
dependent on the good graces
of omnipotent government,
whatever the wording of the constitution may be.
Ludwig von Mises
Planning for Freedom, 1952
is so poor a solution
to the problem of limited resources
that is is commonly employed
only by small children
and great nations.
David Friedman
The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, 1973
If children have nothing to fear,
how can they be good?
Goodness that depends on fear of hell
or fear of the policeman
or fear of punishment
is not goodness at all--
it is simply cowardice.
Goodness that depends on hope of reward
or hope of praise
or hope of heaven
depends on bribery.
A.S. Neill
Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, 1960
the costs and expected price so poorly?
What is their incentive to do so accurately?
They have no stockholders to face,
only taxpayers.
Taxpayers tend to have fewer places to turn
than investors in a private company.
Russell Roberts
The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism, 2001
we find no evidence of equality among men.
We find instead the most all-encompassing diversity and inequality.
. . .
This diveristy or inequality,
far from being a problem to be overcome,
is the basis of much of our civilized social order.
If all individuals were the same,
there would be no division of labor, no trade would take place,
and there would seem to be little purpose
to any social intercourse.
It is the differences between individuals,
not their similarities,
which provide us with opportunity for personal growth
and for ever-richer social order.
H. George Resch
"Human Variation and Individuality," in
The Twelve-Year Sentence: Radical Views of Compulsory Schooling,
edited by William F. Richenbacker, 1974
to imagine that, once they have found
the lowest or meanest motive
for an action or for a person,
they have correctly identified
the authentic or "real" one.
Many a purge or show trial
has gotten merrily under way in this manner.
Christopher Hitchens
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, 2006
in the face of a "no"
is to remember that
"no" is always "yes" to something else
and, as such, it is the beginning,
not the end of a conversation.
Inbal Kashtan
Parenting from Your Heart, 2005
There are ways of maintaining social rules and regulations
that do not involve any kind of punishment.
If we ask two questions of ourselves,
we will see that punishment never works.
Now, if we ask only that question,
one can make an argument for punishment.
You can probably think of times when you know
that somebody was influenced to do something
either by being punished for what they had done
or out of a threat of punishment.
However, when we add the second question,
we see that punishment never works.
What do we want the other person's reasons to be
for doing as we request.
Marshall B. Rosenberg,
Teaching Children Compassionately: How Students and Teachers Can Succeed with Mutual Understanding, 2005
Joy is wealth.
Robert G. Ingersoll
"The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, " 1877
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "A Study in Scarlet," 1887
we could do much more than we do now
to encourage self development.
We could, for example,
drop the increasingly silly fiction
that education is for youngsters
and devise many more arrangements
for lifelong learning.
Robert H Rimmer
The Harrad Experiment, 1966
so much as stating it
to another person."
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "Silver Blaze," 1892
as individuals and to other individuals.
Eve is in no danger from her neighbors and friends,
and I am in no danger from mine.
But she is in danger from my neighbors and friends--
and I from hers.
Robert A Heinlein
Methuselah's Children, 1958.
"Not a tramp," Thomas corrected gently, "a hobo."
"Sorry--what's the distinction?"
"A tramp is a bum, a parasite, a man that won't work.
A hobo is an itenerant laborer
who prefers casual freedom
to security.
He works for his living,
but won't be tied down to one environment."
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
the more willing he is to learn--
the less a man knows,
the more positive he is
that he knows everything.
Robert Ingersoll
"On Learning and Genius," in
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Dresden Edition, Volume Twelve. 1900.
is a process of "drawing out"
rather than "stuffing in."
Dr. Martin Haberman
Star Teachers: The Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty, 2005
It is what the American Dream is all about.
Not the dream of riches,
but the dream of the pursuit of happiness
as the individual perceives it.
Russel Roberts
The Invisible Heart, 2001
We must trust these people,
though not to the point of foolishness.
Christopher Paolini
Eragon, 2002
that it is not enough
to have the courage of your convictions,
but you must also have
the courage to have your convictions challenged.
Christopher Phillips
Socrates Cafe, 2001
is the false assumption that there are only two positions, A and B,
so if A is wrong then B must be right.
The fallacy is that discrediting A does not demonstrate B.
Both A and B could be wrong
and a third alternative could be correct.
Michael Shermer
Why Darwin Matters, 2006
The basic premise of this philosophy is that
it is illegitimate to engage in aggression against non-aggressors.
What is meant by agression is not assertiveness, argumentativeness,
competitiveness, adventurousness, quarrelsomeness, or antagonism.
What is meant by aggression is the use of violence,
such as that which takes place in murder, rape, robbery or kidnapping.
Libertarianism does not imply pacifism;
it does not forbid the use of violence in defense
or even in retaliation against violence.
Libertarian philosophy condemns only the initiation of violence--
the use of violence against a non-violent person or his property.
Walter Block
Defending the Undefendable, 1976
State power has an unbroken record
of inability to do anything
efficiently, economically, disinterestedly or honestly;
yet when the slightest dissatisfaction arises
over any exercise of social power,
the aid of the agent least qualified to give aid
is immediately called for.
Albert Jay Nock
Our Enemy, the State, 1935
where I could put my back against a wall.
Wild Bill Hickok had once, just once,
made the mistake of sitting with his back to the door.
I'd hate to make him feel,
wherever he is,
that he'd died in vain.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
that institutional schoolteaching
is destructive to children.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
The new begins his compast course anew;
with shew of morning mylde he hath begun,
betokening peace and plenty to ensew.
So let vs, which this chaunge of weather vew,
chaunge eeke our mynds and former liues amend,
the old yeares sinnes forepast let vs eschew
and fly the faults with which we did offend.
Then shall the new yeares ioy forth freshly send
into the glooming world his gladsome ray:
and all these stormes which now his beauty blend,
shall turne to caulmes and tymely cleare away.
So likewise loue cheare you your heauy spright,
and chaunge old yeares annoy to new delight.
Edmund Spenser
Amoretti, Sonnet 62, 1595
Repeat after me:
We drink to a great moral truth:
Good Friends! Good Wine! Good Bread!
Joy unsurpassed unto the end!
Angelo M. Pellegrini
Wine and the Good Life, 1965
It is called a police state.
John Ross
Unintended Consequences, 1996
is at best a waste of resources
and a crimp on the human spirit,
and at worst an invitation
to totalitarianism.
Michael Crichton
State of Fear, 2004
the single fact that they seek shelter behind the Gestapo
would be sufficient evidence against them.
Doctrines which can stand the trial of logic and reason
can do so without persecuting skeptics.
Ludwig von Mises
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War, 1944
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
The most bitter remorse
is for the sins one did not commit.
John D. MacDonald
Dress Her in Indigo, 1969
with death.
Louis L'Amour
The Broken Gun 1966
that the right to weapons is a fundamental right.
As long as you have a relatively law-abiding society,
weapons in general ownership and use
prevent tyranny from taking hold.
Nothing else in history has ever managed it.
John Ringo
There Will Be Dragons, 2003
and liberation from it
is the fuel of progress.
A.C. Grayling
"Information," from, The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century, 2005
as a free lunch."
Robert A Heinlein
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966
who are whipped easiest.
Frederick Douglass
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881
"Never," Peter smiled.
"I dislike women who don't know what they're doing.
Let's say I'm trying to make you amenable."
Robert H. Rimmer
Proposition 31, 1968
is not a social program;
in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies
it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism;
and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities
it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment,
appeal to the young and all those others
who believe that some changes are desirable
if this world is to become a better place.
Friedrich A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom, 1944
to a bonny face . . . ."
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights, 1847
Anger is a short madness.
Horace, 65 to 8 B.C.E.
that creates profits and losses.
Capital does not "beget profit" as Marx thought.
The capital goods as such are dead things that in themselves
do not accomplish anything.
If they are utilized according to a good idea, profit results.
If they are utilized according to a mistaken idea,
no profit or losses result.
It is the entrepreneurial decision
that creates either profit or loss.
It is mental acts, the mind of the entrepreneur,
from which profits ultimately originate.
Profit is a product of the mind,
of success in anticipating the future state of the market.
It is a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon.
Ludwig von Mises
Planning for Freedom, 1952
where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
setting up McGee's Handy Home Treatment for Melancholy.
A deep hot bath,
and a strong cold drink,
and a book on the tub rack.
John D. MacDonald
A Deadly Shade of Gold, 1965
are weapons more deadly to tyranny
than any others
that I uphold them. . . .
[B]rute force stengthens tyranny. . . .
War and authority are companions;
peace and liberty are companions.
Benjamin Tucker
"The Philosophical Anarchists," Liberty, July 31, 1886
as quoted in The Debates of Liberty, by Wendy McElroy, 2003
so often dimwitted, slow and wasteful?
Because the Founders planned it that way,
thank heavens.
Richard J. Maybury
Whatever Happened to Justice?, 1993
and writing (and reading)
ability increases . . .
the more one will use the dictionary!
Walter H. Head
A Born-Again View of Religion Versus A Philosophy of Thinking in Principles, 2001
children used to be given a few drops
of wine in their water to accustom them to the taste.
People grow up with wine at the dinner table;
it's part of the family meal.
Since children aren't prohibited from touching the stuff,
it doesn't become "forbidden fruit" like beer and wine do in our culture.
As a result, kids don't bend over backward
to get their hands on it when the adults aren't around,
and then proceed to get drunk.
Leslie Brenner
Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape, 1995
and dressed with pepper and vinegar,
and then thrown out,
as good for nothing.
Samuel Johnson
Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, October 5, 1773
that if they push enough folks around long enough,
sooner or later they'll start shoving somebody who won't take it.
He'll blow right up in their faces
and demolish them and the surrounding landscape;
and they--those who are left--
will scream about how misunderstood and abused they are,
and why didn't somebody tell them
the guy was dangerous so they could be nice to him?
It never seems to occur to them
that there's a very simple answer:
just be nice to everybody.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
as a general maxim.
Lord Macaulay
Machiavelli, 1827
that no man or group of men may aggress
against the person or property of anyone else.
This may be called the "nonaggression axiom."
Murray N. Rothbard
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, 1973
nor when old grow weary of its study.
For no one is too young or too far past his prime
to achieve the health of his soul.
The man who alleges that he is not yet ready for philosophy
or that the time for it has passed him by,
is like the man who says
that he is either too young or too old
for happiness.
Epicurus
Letter to Menoeceus, Fragment 122. Circa 300 BCE.
Quoted in The Essential Epicurus, translated by Eugene O'Connor
masquerading as its own cure.
L. Neil Smith
The Proability Broach, 1980
plan or no plan.
The question is: whose planning?
Should each member of society plan for himself
or should the paternal government alone plan for all? . . .
Laissez faire does not mean:
let souless mechanical forces operate.
It means: let individuals choose
how they want to cooperate in the social division of labor
and let them determine what the entrepreneurs should produce.
Planning means:
let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings
by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion.
Ludwig von Mises
Planning for Freedom, 1952