The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State read more

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow read more

Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom.

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.

One of the peculiarities of the American Revolution was that its leaders pinned their hopes on the organization of decision-making read more

One of the peculiarities of the American Revolution was that its leaders pinned their hopes on the organization of decision-making units, the structuring of their incentives, and the counterbalancing of the units against one another, rather than on the more usual (and more exciting) principle of substituting "the good guys" for "the bad guys.".

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life; but only a fool trusts either of them.

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life; but only a fool trusts either of them.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is read more

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent.

Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.

Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.