For whatever deserves to exist deserves also to be known, for knowledge is the image of existence; and things mean read more

For whatever deserves to exist deserves also to be known, for knowledge is the image of existence; and things mean and splendid exist alike.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

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.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation.

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation.

I wonder how many of the people who profess to believe in the leveling ideas of collectivism and egalitarianism really read more

I wonder how many of the people who profess to believe in the leveling ideas of collectivism and egalitarianism really just believe that they themselves are good for nothing. I mean, how many leftists are animated by a quite reasonable self-loathing? In their hearts they know that they are not going to become scholars or inventors or industrialists or even ordinary good kind people. So they need a way to achieve that smugness for which the left is so justifiably famous. They need a way to achieve self-esteem without merit. Well, there is politics. In an egalitarian world everything will be controlled by politics, and politics requires no merit.

Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation read more

Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.

The State, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the read more

The State, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.