Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.
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A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves. A race of free men is necessarily a race of read more
A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves. A race of free men is necessarily a race of egoists.
It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.
It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.
There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is read more
There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.
Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems read more
Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach. A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. De Tocqueville in his researches into the state of society in France before the revolution was struck by the discovery that "in no one of the periods which have followed the Revolution of 1789 has the national prosperity of France augmented more rapidly than it did in the twenty years preceding that event." He is forced to conclude that "the French found their position the more intolerable the better it became.
If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men read more
If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the world.
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to read more
War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church, flag or ideal, there would be no wars.
The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or read more
The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
