Category: Thought

All science is static in the sense that it describes the unchanging aspects of things.

What we have in this country today, then, is both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny — the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes; the criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent through exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation, the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through “sensitivity training” and multiculturalist curricula, “hate crime” laws, gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally, and a vast labyrinth of other measures. In a word, anarcho-tyranny.

Samuel T. Francis, “Synthesizing Tyranny,” Chronicles (April 2005). Sam Francis had coined the term “anarcho-tyranny” in the previous decade.

He who has failed three times sets up as an instructor.

Ernest Bramah, “The Story of Lin Ho and the Treasure of Fang-Tso” in Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928).

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

Goods move in response to price differences from points of low to points of higher price, the movement tending to obliterate the price difference and come to rest.

Time can’t be measured in days the way money is measured in pesos and centavos, because all pesos are equal, while every day, perhaps every hour, is different.

Jorge Luis Borges, “Juan Muraña,” in Brodie’s Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998).

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).