Category: Thought

When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.

Ernest Bramah, “The Transmutation of Ling,” in The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900).

[P]eople who, in their corporate capacity, abolish the natural relation between merits and benefits, will presently be abolished themselves. Either they will have to go through the miseries of a slow decay, consequent on the increase of those unfit for the business of life, or they will be overrun by some people who have not pursued the foolish policy of fostering the worst at the expense of the best.

Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol. III: Part VIII, Industrial Institutions (1896), Chapter XXII: “Socialism.”

La démocratie étend la sphère de l’indépendance individuelle, le socialisme la resserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chaque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent que par un mot, l’égalité; mais remarquez la différence : la démocratie veut l’égalité dans la liberté, et le socialisme veut l’égalité dans la gêne et dans la servitude.

Alexis de Tocqueville, “Discours prononcé à l’assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail,” Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546.

Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Alexis de Tocqueville, quoted in F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944).

The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body — to the products of his own labor — to the protection of law — and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American as an African.

William Lloyd Garrison, “Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Convention,” speech in Philadelphia (December 6, 1833).

Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.

The advantages which freedom brings are only shown by the lapse of time; and it is always easy to mistake the cause in which they originate.

[I]f the minimum wage is such a wonderful anti-poverty measure, and can have no unemployment-raising effects, why are you such pikers? Why you are helping the working poor by such piddling amounts? Why stop at $4.55 an hour? Why not $10 an hour? $100? $1,000?
It is obvious that the minimum wage advocates do not pursue their own logic, because if they push it to such heights, virtually the entire labor force will be disemployed. In short, you can have as much unemployment as you want, simply by pushing the legally minimum wage high enough.

Murray N. Rothbard, Making Economic Sense (1995).

Men cannot be cured of the love of riches; but they may be persuaded to enrich themselves by none but honest means.

I don’t think they should take my credential into account. I think that people should be able to express their views freely in society whoever they are, and there’s actually a lot of people who are not scientists who have very insightful thoughts about the pandemic. And one of the principles of public health (many of which have been thrown out the window during this year) . . . is that you have to listen to the public. They’re the ones who are living through the consequences of the lockdown. . . .

Martin Kulldorff, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, in conversation with Oksana Boyko on the RT program “Worlds Apart.” Kulldorff was one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration.