In a state-run society the government promises you security. But it's a false promise predicated on the idea that the opposite of security is risk. Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposite of security is insecurity, and the only way to overcome insecurity is to take risks. The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side.
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A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical read more
A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends read more
Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens - and then everybody disagrees.
Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens - and then everybody disagrees.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will
fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in read more
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will
fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible
struggle.
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our read more
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
The true art of government consists in not governing too much.
The true art of government consists in not governing too much.
