Category: Thought

The corn law was intended to keep wheat at the price of 80s. the quarter; it is now under 40s. the quarter.

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

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.

The State of War is in absolute opposition to the right of free choice of nationality, of accession or secession.

Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness.

Society is purely and solely a continual series of exchanges. It is never anything else, in any epoch of its duration, from its commencement the most unformed, to its greatest perfection. And this is the greatest eulogy we can give to it, for exchange is an admirable transaction, in which the two contracting parties always both gain; consequently society is an uninterrupted succession of advantages, unceasingly renewed for all its members.

If censorship reigns, there cannot be sincere flattery, and only small men are afraid of small writings.

Society is purely and solely a continual series of exchanges. It is never anything else, in any epoch of its duration, from its commencement the most unformed, to its greatest perfection. And this is the greatest eulogy we can give to it, for exchange is an admirable transaction, in which the two contracting parties always both gain; consequently society is an uninterrupted succession of advantages, unceasingly renewed for all its members.

I force myself to laugh at everything, for fear of having to cry.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.