QUOTES OF THE DAY 4-12-12

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror. Herbert Spencer

Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society. Herbert Spencer

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. Herbert Spencer

We cannot but be astonished at the ease with which men resign themselves to ignorance about what is most important for them to know; and we may be certain that they are determined to remain invincibly ignorant if they once come to consider it as axiomatic that there are no absolute principles. Frederic Bastiat

Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim – when he defends himself – as a criminal. Frederic Bastiat

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will. Frederic Bastiat

Often the masses are plundered and do not know it. Frederic Bastiat

All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. Frank Chodorov

The State acquires power… and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates. Frank Chodorov

When people say ‘let’s do something about it,’ they mean ‘let’s get hold of the political machinery so that we can do something to somebody else.’ And that somebody is invariably you. Frank Chodorov

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that — however bloody — can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave. Lysander Spooner

And the so-called sovereigns, in these different governments, are simply the heads, or chiefs, of different bands of robbers and murderers. Lysander Spooner

A government that can at pleasure accuse, shoot, and hang men, as traitors, for the one general offence of refusing to surrender themselves and their property unreservedly to its arbitrary will, can practice any and all special and particular oppressions it pleases. The result — and a natural one — has been that we have had governments, State and national, devoted to nearly every grade and species of crime that governments have ever practised upon their victims; and these crimes have culminated in a war that has cost a million of lives; a war carried on, upon one side, for chattel slavery, and on the other for political slavery; upon neither for liberty, justice, or truth. And these crimes have been committed, and this war waged, by men, and the descendants of men, who, less than a hundred years ago, said that all men were equal, and could owe neither service to individuals, nor allegiance to governments, except with their own consent. Lysander Spooner

A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Lysander Spooner

No attempt or pretence, that was ever carried into practical operation amongst civilized men — unless possibly the pretence of a “Divine Right,” on the part of some, to govern and enslave others — embodied so much of shameless absurdity, falsehood, impudence, robbery, usurpation, tyranny, and villany of every kind, as the attempt or pretence of establishing a government by consent, and getting the actual consent of only so many as may be necessary to keep the rest in subjection by force. Such a government is a mere conspiracy of the strong against the weak. It no more rests on consent than does the worst government on earth. Lysander Spooner

Our constitutions purport to be established by ‘the people,’ and, in theory, ‘all the people’ consent to such government as the constitutions authorize. But this consent of ‘the people’ exists only in theory. It has no existence in fact. Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given. Lysander Spooner