El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in read more

El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a single voice.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and read more

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely read more

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason.

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the read more

All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest.

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If read more

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally.

...the argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason read more

...the argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren't. I don't know if its the way you read more

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren't. I don't know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and read more

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power- God, history, fate, nation or humanity.