The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will read more

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Crime, like disease, is not interesting; it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is read more

Crime, like disease, is not interesting; it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all about it.

By the end, everybody had a label -- pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary ... If you had everything but a gun, read more

By the end, everybody had a label -- pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary ... If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it.The read more

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it.The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud read more

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their read more

It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.