Category: Thought

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, 
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place 
A limit to the giant’s unchained strength, 
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?

William Cullen Bryant, The Ages, XXXIII.

Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically: while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together, by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized world.

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).

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.

Anders Chydenius (1739 – 1803) was a Swedish priest and politician born in what is now Ostrobothnian Finland. This quotation is from The National Gain, §20, 1765.

Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. . . . Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

If the American people come to recognize that the financial crisis was caused by the housing policies of their own government — rather than insufficient regulation or the inherent instability of the U.S. financial system — Dodd- Frank will be seen as an illegitimate response to the crisis. Only then will it be possible to repeal or substantially modify this repressive law.

Peter Wallison, “The Case for Repealing Dodd-Frank,” Imprimis, November 2013 [Volume 42, Number 11].

Men must stop being jealous of their power and generously allow freedom and responsibility to others. The reward is harmonious families and society.

Socialism is essentially inimical to family life, which it regards as a bourgeois institution — to use its own favorite anathema. Socialism would make motherhood a State business or profession, would pay women for this sexual function, and deprive fathers of all status or recognition.