For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis -- an American decision that this is sport, or that it is business. - The American Character.
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Neither "property" nor the value of property is a physical thing. Property is a set of defined options...It is that read more
Neither "property" nor the value of property is a physical thing. Property is a set of defined options...It is that set of options which has economic value...It is the options, and not the physical things, which are the "property" - economically as well as legally...But because the public tends to think of property as tangible, physical things, this opens the way politically for government confiscation of property by forcibly taking away options while leaving the physical objects untouched.
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain- and since labor is pain in itself- it follows that men read more
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain- and since labor is pain in itself- it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.
A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits.
A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits.
All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks read more
All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks but seldom changes the way the world works. Lasting historical change comes not through tidal waves but through the irresistible creeping tide.
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.
A wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
A wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend read more
Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.
The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by the Constitution; neither is it read more
The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.
