"Throughout the ages the rich have been viewed with suspicion because the predominant means of attaining wealth had been through force. Wealth created through trade, through voluntary action, was taken away by the tax man or by military conquest. So it was assumed that all accumulations of wealth came about by violence and coercion.Then along comes Adam Smith and the United States, and now it is understood that wealth created by peaceful exchange is a good thing for society.
But those who would prefer to get rich the old fashioned way, by violence and coercion, objected. Those people are Progressives."
"Leftists cannot separate people from ideas. If you agree with them then you are a good person, and if you disagree then you are a bad person. The more eloquent and logical the disagreement, the worse of a person you are."
"Republics abound in young civilians, who believe that the laws make the city, that grave modifications of the policy and modes of living, and employments of the population, that commerce, education, and religion, may be voted in or out; and that any measure, though it were absurd, may be imposed on a people, if only you can get sufficient voices to make it a law. But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting ..."
"Guns are like Sauron's ring: carrying one will actively corrupt even the most pure soul and turn him into a murdering fiend."
"We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely? those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax. Or compare the degree of zeal devoted to pursuing the man who assaults a policeman, with the attention that the State pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet, curiously, the State's openly assigned priority to its own defense against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its presumed raison d'etre."
But those who would prefer to get rich the old fashioned way, by violence and coercion, objected. Those people are Progressives."
"Leftists cannot separate people from ideas. If you agree with them then you are a good person, and if you disagree then you are a bad person. The more eloquent and logical the disagreement, the worse of a person you are."
"Republics abound in young civilians, who believe that the laws make the city, that grave modifications of the policy and modes of living, and employments of the population, that commerce, education, and religion, may be voted in or out; and that any measure, though it were absurd, may be imposed on a people, if only you can get sufficient voices to make it a law. But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting ..."
"Guns are like Sauron's ring: carrying one will actively corrupt even the most pure soul and turn him into a murdering fiend."
"We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely? those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax. Or compare the degree of zeal devoted to pursuing the man who assaults a policeman, with the attention that the State pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet, curiously, the State's openly assigned priority to its own defense against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its presumed raison d'etre."
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