A leader is best when people barely know that he exists,
not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
worst when they despise him.
Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you.
But of a good leader, who talks little,
when his work is done, his aims fulfilled,
they will all say,
‘We did this ourselves.’
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 17
“The greatest gift that God in His bounty made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of will, with which the creatures with intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed.”
Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto V, lines 19-24
We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could.
William Graham Sumner, “The New Social Creed,” Earth-Hunger and Other Essays, p. 210 (1913).
“ man who started with the notion that the world owed him a living would once more find, as he does now, that the world pays him its debt in the state prison.”
William Graham Sumner, “The Challenge of Facts” (1914)
“It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
Voltaire, Zadig (1747)
“The history of civil liberty is made up of campaigns against abuses of taxation. Protectionism is the great modern abuse of taxation; the abuse of taxation which is adapted to a republican form of government. Protectionism is now corrupting our political institutions just as slavery used to do.”
William Graham Sumner, “Protectionism: the -ism which teaches that waste makes wealth” (1888)
“Clever tyrants are never punished.”
Voltaire, Mérope, act V, scene V (1743)
“Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare.”
William Graham Sumner, “The Forgotten Man” (1883)
“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
Voltaire, “Sixième discours: sur la nature de l’homme,” Sept Discours en Vers sur l’Homme (1738)
“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)