An individualist is a man who says: ‘I’ll not run anyone’s life — nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone — nor sacrifice anyone to myself.’
Ayn Rand, Textbook of Americanism (1946).
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
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.
En effet, l’histoire n’est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire, L’Ingénu, ch. 10 (1767).
Samuel Butler, Erewhon (1872), chapter 26.
Happily common sense, though she is by nature the gentlest creature living, when she feels the knife at her throat, is apt to develop unexpected powers of resistance, and to send doctrinaires flying, even when they have bound her down and think they have her at their mercy.
“Did the seed of tyranny ever bear good fruit? And can you expect liberty to undo in a moment what oppression has been doing for ages?” (From anarchistquotes.com)
Voltairine de Cleyre
Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
Arthur C. Clarke, “Maelstrom II,” Playboy (April 1965).
The heroes of the books I read, The Lord of the Rings and the Foundation series, always felt a duty to save the world.
Elon Musk, quoted in Tad Friend’s feature in The New Yorker, “Plugged In” (August 17, 2009).
The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.
Simone Weil, “The Power of Words” (1937), published in Selected Essays 1934-1943 (1957).
If we understood the world, we would realize that there is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent dissonances.
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, as quoted in Henry Thomas and Dana Lee Thomas, Living Biographies of Great Composers (Garden City (NY): Blue Ribbon, [1940] 1946) p. 309.