Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Obedience indeed is only the pitiful and cowardly egotism of him who thinks that he can do something better than read more

Obedience indeed is only the pitiful and cowardly egotism of him who thinks that he can do something better than reason

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for read more

...economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

It can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to read more

It can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to safeguard its own monopoly of crime.

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most read more

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most vitally from democracy. In a despotism there is no organized opposition which can take over the power when the Administration in office has failed. All the eggs are in one basket. Everything is staked on one coterie of men. When the going is good, they move more quickly and efficiently than democracies, where the opposition has to be persuaded and conciliated. But when they lose, there are no reserves. There are no substitutes on the bench ready to go out on the field and carry the ball. That is why democracies with the habit of party government have outlived all other forms of government in the modern world. They have, as it were, at least two governments always at hand, and when one fails they have the other. They have diversified the risks of mortality, corruption, and stupidity which pervade all human affairs. They have remembered that the most beautifully impressive machine cannot run for very long unless there is available a complete supply of spare parts.

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.