This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but read more

This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.

All revolutions...have been led by persons who knew oppression well, but not on their own skin.

All revolutions...have been led by persons who knew oppression well, but not on their own skin.

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. read more

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.

For every prohibition you create you also create an underground.

For every prohibition you create you also create an underground.

...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are read more

...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement.

The law giver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the read more

The law giver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own.

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we read more

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

Every politician should have been born an orphan and remain a bachelor.

Every politician should have been born an orphan and remain a bachelor.

Many bad policies are simply good policies taken too far.

Many bad policies are simply good policies taken too far.