“If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government,” Aesthetic Papers, 1849 (republished in a variety of titles, including On the Duty of Civil Disobedience).
“No government is wise enough, or ever will be, to say how much of the results of my labor I shall contribute to my neighbor to remunerate his labor.
“Congress has nothing to say about that. Congress is bound to give us both the benefit of equal laws, and then to leave us both to take care of ourselves. It is no part of the duty of Congress to see that any set of men whatever are making money.”
Arthur Latham Perry, Elements of Political Economy, 1865.
“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government,” Aesthetic Papers, 1849 (republished in a variety of titles, including On the Duty of Civil Disobedience).
“I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.”
Lafayette, as quoted in a letter by Thomas Clarkson (October 3, 1845), published in The Liberty Bell (1846), p. 64.
“What is called the Progress of Civilization has been marked and conditioned at every step by an extension of the opportunities, a greater facility in the use of the means, a more eager searching for proper expedients, and a higher certainty in the securing of the returns, of mutual exchanges among men.”
Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy, 1891.
“Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.”
Lafayette, Letter to friends (1780), published in Memoirs de La Fayette, Vol. II, p. 50.
“Wantonly and enormously heavy lies the hand of the national Government upon the masses of the people at present. But the People are sovereign, and not their transient agents in the government; and the signs are now cheering indeed, that they have not forgotten their native word of command, nor that government is instituted for the sole benefit of the governed and governing people, nor that the greatest good of the greatest number is the true aim and guide of Legislation.”
Arthur Latham Perry, 1890, preface to Principles of Political Economy, 1891.
The only people who object to escapism are jailers.
C. S. Lewis, as quoted by Arthur C. Clarke, God, The Universe and Everything Else (1988).
“I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and out of all of this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.”
Lafayette, Letter to his father-in-law, the Duc d’Ayan (December 4, 1776).
“I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. Nor do most people — all the people who believe advertisements, and think in catchwords and spread rumors. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.”
C. S. Lewis, “Equality,” The Spectator, Vol. CLXXI (27 August 1943).