Category: Thought

It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?

He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

A nation is poor or is rich according as the quantity of property which she annually creates, in proportion to the number of her people, is great or is small. Now commerce tends to increase this annual produce by occasioning a more productive application and distribution both of the land and of the labour of the country.

To live in accordance with how one thinks. Be yourself and don’t try to impose your criteria on the rest. I don’t expect others to live like me. I want to respect people’s freedom, but I defend my freedom. And that comes with the courage to say what you think, even if sometimes others don’t share those views.

Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.

If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.