!["My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy. "I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. "Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to ‘King George’s council, Winston and his gang’, it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy. "Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. And at least it is done only to a small group of men who know who their master is." — From a letter to Christopher Tolkien [from his father J.R.R. Tolkien] 29 November 1943 https://peacerequiresanarchy.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/the-letters-of-jrr-tolkien/](https://wordsofthesentient.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/wots-tolkien-anarchist.jpg?w=645)
“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy. “I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. “Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to ‘King George’s council, Winston and his gang’, it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy. “Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. And at least it is done only to a small group of men who know who their master is.” — From a letter to Christopher Tolkien [from his father J.R.R. Tolkien] 29 November 1943 https://peacerequiresanarchy.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/the-letters-of-jrr-tolkien/
Tags: anarchism, anarchy, fantasy, Politics
Criminals are never materially handicapped by such rules;
the only effect is to disarm the peaceful citizen and put him fully at the mercy of the lawless.
Such rules look very pretty on paper; in practice they are as foolish and footless as the attempt of the mice to bell the cat.
Such is my thesis, that the licensing of weapons is subversive of liberty and self-defeating in its pious purpose.
— Robert Anson Heinlein, Letter to Alice Dalgliesh, the editor who was censoring his manuscript for Red Planet, regarding gun control registration and control
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts, but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
— Frank Herbert, Dune
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right. The Coolidge Prosperity and the Hoover Economy of Plenty were quite as bad as the New Deal.
The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.
— H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, p330 (1956)
He that would make his own liberty secure
must guard even his enemy from oppression;
for if he violates this duty
he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself.
— Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government (1791)
Tags: america, bill of rights, declaration of independence, enemies, founding fathers, hypocrisy, liberty, oppression, thomas paine, tom paine
“Oh no, the Night Wolf is eating the Moon Virgin. Give me some silver and I’ll make him spit her out.”
The bullying of fellow citizens by means of dreads and frights has been going on since paleolithic times. Greenpeace fund-raisers on the subject of global warming are not much different than tribal wizards on the subject of lunar eclipses.
“Oh no, the Night Wolf is eating the Moon Virgin.
Give me some silver and I’ll make him spit her out.”
— P.J.O’Rourke, All the Trouble in the World
Tags: climate change, environmentalism, epa, global warming, going green, ipcc, p.j. o'rourke, shamanism
“Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can’t mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.”
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.
I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
— William S Burroughs, The War Universe (1992)
Tags: 2nd amendment, gun control, gun rights, gun shows, school shooting, second amendment, william burroughs, william s burroughs
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed”
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.
Then it is important to strengthen the state governments: and as this cannot be done by any change in the federal constitution…it must be done by the states themselves, erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as cannot be surmounted either by themselves or by the general
government.
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stuart, on the need to defend States’ Rights against the Federal government
Tags: 10th amendment, archibald stuart, constitution, jefferson, liberty, safety, state's rights, thomas jefferson
I think we can all agree that this is very important.
We need our highest judicial body to stop this childish bickering and get back to debating the kinds of weighty constitutional issues that have absorbed the court in recent years, such as whether a city can legally force an exotic dancer to cover her entire nipple, or just the part that pokes out.
— Dave Barry, Dave Barry is Not Making This Up
Tags: dave barry, dave barry is not making this up, nipples, quotations, quotes, scotus, strippers, supreme court
“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.
Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson (1813)
Tags: copyright law, creative commons, eff, Electronic Frontier Foundation, intellectual property, patent law, public domain, thomas jefferson
Blackstone’s Ratio, mentioned by Ben Franklin in this quote, identifies why the benefit of the doubt must always be given to the accused, especially if the accusation is really bad.
That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.
— Benjamin Franklin, letter to Benjamin Vaughan (1785)
Tags: ben franklin, benjamin franklin, blackstone's formulation, innocent until proven guilty, justice, qotd, quotations, william blackstone
When laws are carried out not only for the public good, but also to target and punish, it dos society great harm.
The more numerous the laws,
the more corrupt the government.
— Publius Tacitus, Annals (117 AD)
(Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges)
Tags: annals, government, latin, liberty, quotations, quotes, roman empire, tacitus
In the later novel, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, a character refers to the earlier book’s comment: “Dr. Harshaw says that ‘the word ‘love’ designates a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person are essential to one’s own happiness.”
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
— Robert Anson Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Tags: love, quotations, rah, robert anson heinlein, robert heinlein, romance, stranger in a strange land, valentine's day
“To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”
One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all”.
— Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Tags: augustine of hippo, injustice, martin luther king jr, natural law, obamacare, st augustine, supreme court
“I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
— Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)
Tags: 1st amendment, censorship, error of opinion, first amendment, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, quote, thomas jefferson
“‘This is living!’ ‘I gotta be me!’ ‘Ain’t we got fun!’ It’s all there in the Declaration of Independence. We are the only nation in the world based on happiness. Search as you will the Maga Charta, the /Communist Manifesto/, the Ten Commandments, the Analects of Confucius, Plato’s /Republic/, the New Testament or the UN Charter, and find me any happiness at all.
There are twenty-seven specific complaints against the British Crown set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
To modern ears they still sound reasonable, in large part, because so many of them can be leveled against the federal government of the United States.
— P.J.O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)
Tags: 4th of july, declaration of independence, founding fathers, fourth of july, independence day, magna charta, parliament of whores, pj o'rourke
“Our Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties.”
Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood, and hunt us from the face of the earth?
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude, than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
— Samuel Adams, Son of Liberty, in a speech given to the Philadelphia state house (1776)
Tags: 4th of july, constitution, declaration of independence, fourth of july, independence day, sam adams, samuel adams, sons of liberty
“We may add that frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or remissness on the part of the government.”
In a well-governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitudes of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
Tags: drug war, incarceration, injustice, jean-jacques rosseau, liberty, prohibition, rousseau, tyranny
Gerald Ford's famous paraphrasing of Nock's statement: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."Address to Congress (08-12-74)
You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it;
and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you.
— Albert Jay Nock, The Criminality of the State (1939)
(note that the famous version is often misattributed to Jefferson, Goldwater, or Reagan, but is actually from Gerald Ford)
Tags: albert jay nock, barry goldwater, gerald ford, government, jay nock, quotations, quotes, ronald reagan
For the past century, Americans have mostly voted against unprincipled "moderates".
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
— Barry Goldwater, presidential nomination acceptance speech (1964)
Tags: barry goldwater, conservatism, extremism, goldwater, independents, justice, moderates, republican, romney
"What the country needs is fewer laws and more freedom."
After years of secret slavery the Republican Party and the Democratic Party come out into the open and reveal to themselves and to the nation as nothing but the right wing and the left wing of the same bird of prey.
There is not a word in either of their platforms that might not have been written and unanimously endorsed by a convention exclusively of corporation lawyers and Wall Street Bankers.
The only difference between these platforms as some one has remarked, is the number of words used to say nothing. Confronted by the gravest crisis in the history of civilization, they have demonstrated, even to their own adherents, that they are without the vision of statesmanship, the courage of leadership or the conviction of patriotism.
— Allen McCurdy, Keynotes for the Third Party National Convention (1920)
Tags: allen mccurdy, bipartisanship, independents, left win, occupy wall street, right wing, the political class, third party
"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to 'bind me in all cases whatsoever' to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?"
These people are either too superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms; they either cannot or dare not defend; their property is open to any one who has the courage to attack them. Send but your troops and the prize is ours. Kill a few and take the whole. Thus the peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned, while they neglect the means of self defence.
The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.
The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up.
Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves.
— Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War (1774)
Tags: 2nd amendment, arms, just war, pacifism, quakers, right to keep and bear arms, thomas paine
Reagan appointee Ron Paul, sitting with The Gipper, himself
If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.
I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories.
The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
— Ronald Reagan, interview with Reason Magazine (1975)
Tags: conservatism, conservative, libertarian, libertarianism, liberty, reagan, ron paul, ronald reagan
Evelyn Beatrice Hall was paraphrasing Voltaire's mindset, not quoting him. The closest he ever came was "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too", in Essay on Tolerance
‘What a fuss about an omelette!‘ he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that!
‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,’ was his attitude now.
— Evelyn Beatrice Hall, in The Friends of Voltaire, summarizing Voltaire’s defense of a censored book (1906)
Tags: censorship, evelyn beatrice hall, first amendment, François-Marie Arouet, freedom of speech, quotations, quotes, voltaire
It is moral by his code to get into office by false pretences. It is moral to change convictions overnight. Anything is moral that furthers the main concern of his soul, which is to keep a place at the public trough.
Ostensibly he is an altruist devoted whole-heartedly to the service of his fellow-men, and so abjectly public-spirited that his private interest is nothing to him. Actually, he is a sturdy rogue whose principal, and often sole aim in life is to butter his parsnips.
His technical equipment consistes simply of an armamentarium of deceits.
It is his business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying he will hold it by lying. if lying peters out he will try and hold it by embracing new truths.
His ear is ever close to the ground.
— H. L. Mencken on elected politicians, Notes on Democracy (1926)
Tags: democracy, elections, hl mencken, mencken, mitt romney, moderates, notes on democracy, politicians
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant."
Both in England and on the Continent a graduated property tax (l’impôt progressif [progressive tax]) has been advocated, on the avowed ground that the state should use the instrument of taxation as a means of mitigating the inequalities of wealth.
I am as desirous as any one that means should be taken to diminish those inequalities, but not so as to relieve the prodigal at the expense of the prudent.
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbours.
It is not the fortunes which are earned, but those which are unearned, that it is for the public good to place under limitation.
— John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (1848)
Tags: economics, income inequality, income tax, job creation, john stuart mill, js mill, progressive tax, tax the rich
Words of the Sentient 