Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and read more

Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty. Not only has liberty nothing to do with any other sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not demonstrate that some manners of living are more successful than others, much of the case for it would vanish.

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

The political world is stimulating. It's the most interesting thing you can do. It beats following the dollar.

The political world is stimulating. It's the most interesting thing you can do. It beats following the dollar.

The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and read more

The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and that's what it would take.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, read more

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.

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.

...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made read more

...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made to prevail by force if need be, it is less wasteful to determine which has the stronger support by counting numbers than by fighting. Democracy is the only method of peaceful change that man has yet been discovered.

The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.

The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.