Many a bum show has been saved by the flag.

Many a bum show has been saved by the flag.

Government is beating into submission, imprisoning, and killing...The authority of man-made law is entirely due to weapons of the constables read more

Government is beating into submission, imprisoning, and killing...The authority of man-made law is entirely due to weapons of the constables who enforce obedience to its provisions.

Politics is not an exact science.

Politics is not an exact science.

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing read more

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what has worked with what sounded good. In area after area- crime, education, housing, race relations- the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the read more

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed read more

If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed in winning the support of their fellow citizens and converting them to the endorsement of policies that bring and preserve prosperity, the cause of mankind and civilization is hopeless. There is no other means to safeguard a propitious development of human affairs than to make the masses of inferior people adopt the ideas of the elite. This has to be achieved by convincing them. It cannot be accomplished by a despotic regime that instead of enlightening the masses beats them into submission. In the long run the ideas of the majority, however detrimental they may be, will carry on. The future of mankind depends on the ability of the elite to influence public opinion in the right direction.

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; read more

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which read more

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.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.