To-day is the parent of to-morrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future. That is the law of life, individual and social. Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone.
Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia (1925).
When one is deprived of one’s liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1, 69.
Perhaps the soul of goodness in things evil is by nothing better exemplified than by the good thing, justice, which, in rudimentary form, exists within the evil thing revenge.
If I want to be free from any other man’s dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.
William Graham Sumner, “The Forgotten Man” (1883).
The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government.
You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.
I’m sorry the Left is falling apart. It’s not my fault; I didn’t make it happen. And saying so doesn’t make me a conservative.
Tim Pool, ‘Trump Comes To The DEFENSE Of Tulsi Gabbard over Russia Smear,’ Timcast, October 20, 2019.
If censorship reigns, there cannot be sincere flattery, and only small men are afraid of small writings.
The whole of the Bill is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals. . . . It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.
Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.
The State of War is in absolute opposition to the right of free choice of nationality, of accession or secession.
Gustave de Molinari, The Society of To-morrow (1899)