On Work

When each becomes his own taskmaster and regards work as a curse which he endures only to gain means of subsistence, will he not constantly seek to avoid it?

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948

Society and Wisdom

In this they bear out the observation of Socrates that society does not mind an individual's being wise; only when he begins to make others wise does it become apprehensive.

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948 

On the Philosopher

Not only is the philosopher a notoriously poor consumer; he is also an unsettling influence on societies careless of justice.

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948 

Shaping Reason

"Reason alone fails to justify itself. Not without cause has the devil been called a prince of lawyers, and not by accident are Shakespeare's villains good reasoners. If the disposition is wrong, reason increases maleficence; if it is right, reason orders and furthers the good."

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948

How to Identify Legal Plunder

See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Source: Frédéric Bastiat, The Law 1849
Taken From: Legal Obedience, Walter Williams, 8/24/2011

On the Size of the State

"[W]hen you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed."

Source:  Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged 1957
Taken From: Simon Black, July 8, Boiling frog alert: Congress wants automatic wage deductions to pay down the debt