Notable Quotable 189

Jan 19, 2024

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.

- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.

- H.L. Mencken

What is it about the government and its agents and employees that they can lie to us with impunity, but we risk being sent to jail if we lie to them?

- Andrew P. Napolitano

A system is corrupt when it is strictly profit-driven, not driven to serve the best interests of its people.

- Suzy Kassem

Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only the bananas!

- Mehmet Murat ildan

Strike.Me

Buy Me a Coffee

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good.

- Joe Paterno

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

- Friedrich August von Hayek

The honor of a nation is its life.

- Alexander Hamilton

The idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy.

- Paul Wellstone

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.

- Mahatma Gandhi