It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or read more

It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.

Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, read more

Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing.

Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central institution of a free society.

Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central institution of a free society.

We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.

We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.

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.

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.

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is read more

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad.

Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad.