The notion of a farseeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy read more

The notion of a farseeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy generated by the pride of the human intellect to which facts give no support.

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, read more

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not read more

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it -- it keeps him upright.

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it -- it keeps him upright.

The inner censor of the mind of the true believer completes the work of the public censor; his self-discipline is read more

The inner censor of the mind of the true believer completes the work of the public censor; his self-discipline is as tyrannical as the obedience imposed by the regime; he terrorizes his own conscience into submission; he carries his private Iron Curtain inside his skull, to protect his illusions against the intrusion of reality.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.