Notable Quotable 65

Mar 28, 2023

The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of the prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.

- Aldous Huxley

Because in the end you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain!

- Jack Kerouac

If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.

- Hannah Arendt

The truth is, one who seeks to achieve freedom by petitioning those in power to give it to him has already failed, regardless of the response.

- Larken Rose

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.

- William Lloyd Garrison

What makes the difference between a gang and a state is the belief that there is a difference between a gang and a state.

- Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski

In this century, the human race faces, once again, the virulent reign of the State—of the State now armed with the fruits of man’s creative powers, confiscated and perverted to its own aims. The last few centuries were times when men tried to place constitutional and other limits on the State, only to find that such limits, as with all other attempts, have failed. Of all the numerous forms that governments have taken over the centuries, of all the concepts and institutions that have been tried, none has succeeded in keeping the State in check. The problem of the State is evidently as far from solution as ever. Perhaps new paths of inquiry must be explored, if the successful, final solution of the State question is ever to be attained.

- Murray N. Rothbard, Anatomy of the State

Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as in a state of impermissible ‘anarchy’, why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighbourhood? Each block? Each house? Each person?

- Murray N. Rothbard

People who can't imagine order without imposition always end up favouring power over liberty.

- Jeffrey Tucker

No eyes will raise to heaven. The pure will be thought insane and the impure will be honoured as wise. The madman will be believed brave, and the wicked esteemed as good.

- Hermes Trismegistus