Category: Thought

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, “Rights.”

[A]s a Republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words that form of government, which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of Republics.

John Adams, “Thoughts On Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies” (1776), passage quoted as epigraph in The State of Texas v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of Georgia, State of Michigan, and State of Wisconsin (see Viva Frei Vlawg, December 9, 2020).

No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

John Milton, “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates” (1650).

Let those who are anxious to improve the health of the poor, through the indirect machinery of law, bring their zeal to bear directly upon the work to be done. Let them appeal to men’s sympathies, and again to their interests. Let them prove to people of property that the making of these reforms will pay. Let them show that the productive powers of the labourer will be increased by bettering his health, whilst the poors’-rates will be diminished. Above all, let them demand the removal of those obstacles which existing legislation puts in the way of sanitary improvements. Their efforts thus directed will really promote progress. Whereas their efforts as now directed are either needless or injurious.  

Herbert Spencer, “Sanitary Supervision,” Social Statics (1851); as quoted in Phillip W. Magness, “Herbert Spencer’s Critique of the Board of Health in 1851” (December 7, 2020).

It is not easy to be wise for all times, not event for the present much less for the future; and those who judge the past must recollect that, when it was the present the present was future.

Gouverneur Morris to Robert Walsh (February 5, 1811).

One may ride upon a tiger’s back but it is fatal to dismount.

We all proposition our grocer in the following fashion: “We’re not going to tell you when we’re going to shop; we’re not going to tell you what we’re going to buy; we’re not going to tell you the quantity we’re going to buy — but we will fire you if you don’t have what we want when we do come into the store.”

Walter E. Williams (March 31, 1936 – December 2, 2020), Bradley Prize Winner 2017, was John M. Olin Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering, and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.

Walter E. Williams (born March 31, 1936), Bradley Prize Winner 2017, was Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He died on December 2, 2020.

Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.

However deep you dig a well it affords no refuge in the time of flood.

Ernest Bramah, Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, “The Story of Tong So, the Averter of Calamities” (1928).