Ideas

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”

— Thomas Paine·Common Sense·1776

“The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion.”

— John Stuart Mill·On Liberty·1859

“POLITICAL POWER, then, I take to be a RIGHT of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good.”

— John Locke·Second Treatise of Government·1690

“The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man.”

— Lysander Spooner·No Treason·1870

“But the social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau·The Social Contract

“That government is best which governs not at all”

— Henry David Thoreau·Civil Disobedience·1849

“Law is organised Justice.”

— Frédéric Bastiat·The Law