“What is the Source out of which Taxes are actually paid? The answer is, out of the gains of Exchanges of some sort. Gifts aside, and thefts which are out of the question, no man ever did, no man ever can, pay his taxes, except out of the gains of some sales which he has already made.”
Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy (1891).
“The danger of ancient liberty was that men, exclusively concerned with securing their share of social power, might attach too little value to individual rights and enjoyments.
“The danger of modern liberty is that, absorbed in the enjoyment of our private independence, and in the pursuit of our particular interests, we should surrender our right to share in political power too easily.”
Benjamin Comstant, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns (1819).
Common sense is outraged by a law which requires a man to part with his property at less than the actual value . . .
Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy (1891).
“An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.”
Stendhal, The Red and the Black (1830).
“Calumniate, calumniate; there will always be something which sticks.”
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Le Barbier de Séville (1773).
“The inner spiritual chaos of the times, so powerfully created by the dynamics of capitalism itself, is such as to make nihilism an easy temptation. A ‘free society’ in Hayek’s sense gives birth in massive numbers to ‘free spirits’ — emptied of moral substance but still driven by primordial moral aspirations. Such people are capable of the most irrational actions. Indeed, it is my impression that, under the strain of modern life, whole classes of our population — and the educated classes most of all — are entering what can only be called, in the strictly clinical sense, a phase of infantile regression. With every passing year, public discourse becomes sillier and more petulant, emotions become, apparently, more ungovernable. Some of our most intelligent university professors are now loudly saying things that, had they been uttered by one of their students twenty years ago, would have called forth gentle and urbane reproof.”
Irving Kristol, “‘When virtue loses all her loveliness’ — some reflections on Capitalism and ‘the free society,’” National Affairs, No. 21, Fall 1970.
“I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.”
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Le Barbier de Séville (1773).
“Our youthful rebels are anything but inarticulate; and though they utter a great deal of nonsense, the import of what they are saying is clear enough. What they are saying is that they dislike — to put it mildly — the liberal, individualist, capitalist civilization that stands ready to receive them as citizens. They are rejecting this offer of citizenship and are declaring their desire to see some other kind of civilization replace it.”
Irving Kristol, “‘When virtue loses all her loveliness’ — some reflections on Capitalism and ‘the free society,’” National Affairs, No. 21, Fall 1970.
“Then he asked in German (the only language that we ever spoke): ‘Ist die Sowjetregierung eine faschistische Regierung? – Is the Soviet Government a fascist government?”. . . . I sat silent for some moments. Then I said: “Ja, die Sowjetregierung ist eine faschistische Regierung — the Soviet Government is a fascist government”. . . . Krivitsky turned for the first time and looked at me directly. ‘Du hast recht,’ he said, ‘und Kronstadt war der Wendepunkt – You are right, and Kronstadt was the turning point.”
Whittaker Chambers, Witness, pp. 459–460.
“When we lack the will to see things as they really are, there is nothing so mystifying as the obvious.”
Irving Kristol, “‘When virtue loses all her loveliness’ — some reflections on Capitalism and ‘the free society,’” National Affairs, No. 21, Fall 1970.