It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and waterways being notable examples. This goes to the heart of why property rights are socially important in the first place. Property rights mean self-interested monitors. No owned creatures are in danger of extinction. No owned forests are in danger of being leveled. No one kills the goose that lays the golden egg when it is his goose.
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Power tires only those who do not have it.
Power tires only those who do not have it.
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause read more
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.
Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant read more
Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant part in the human tragedy, compared to the numbers massacred in unselfish loyalty to one's tribe, nation, dynasty, church, or political ideology, ad majorem gloriam dei. The emphasis is on unselfish. Excepting a small minority of mercenary or sadistic disposition, wars are not fought for personal gain, but out of loyalty and devotion to king, country or cause. Homicide committed for personal reasons is a statistical rarity in all cultures, including our own. Homicide for unselfish reasons, at the risk of one's own life, is the dominant phenomenon of history.
I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to read more
I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.
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.
Progress is precisely that which the rules and regulations did not foresee.
Progress is precisely that which the rules and regulations did not foresee.
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.
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
I'd rather keep my promises to other politicians than to God. God, at least, has a degree of forgiveness.
I'd rather keep my promises to other politicians than to God. God, at least, has a degree of forgiveness.
