Under a morality of sacrifice, the first value you sacrifice is morality; the next is self-esteem. When need is the standard, every man is both victim and parasite. As a victim, he must labor to fill the needs of others, leaving himself in the position of a parasite whose needs must be filled by others. He cannot approach his fellow men except in one of two disgraceful roles: he is both a beggar and a sucker.John Galt (Fictional Character)
Such is the secret core of your creed, the other half of your double standard: it is immoral to live by your own effort, but moral to live by the effort of others - it is immoral to consume your own product, but moral to consume the products of others - it is immoral to earn, but moral to mooch - it is the parasites who are the moral justification for the existence of the producers, but the existence of the parasites is an end in itself - it is evil to profit by achievement, but good to profit by sacrifice - it is evil to create your own happiness, but good to enjoy it at the price of the blood of others.John Galt (Fictional Character)
Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate-do you hear me? no man may start-the use of physical force against other.John Galt (Fictional Character)
Whatever the system of government may be, the foundation upon which it is built and rests is always the opinion of those ruled that to obey and to be loyal to this government better serves their own interests than insurrection and the establishment of another regime. The majority has the power to do away with an unpopular government and uses this power whenever it becomes convinced that its own welfare requires it. In the long run there is no such thing as an unpopular governmentSource: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 6, Section 1, Uncertainty and Acting, 1949
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.Source: Cicero, Pro Plancio 54 B.C.
Second, the reciprocal performances of the parties must in some sense be equal in value…. We cannot here speak of an exact identity, for it makes no sense at all to exchange, say, a book or idea in return for exactly the same book or idea. The bond of reciprocity unites men, not simply in spite of their differences but because of their differences….Source: Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law, pp. 23–24, 1964
...a nation can be born in a day if the ideals of the people can be changed.Source: Vachel Lindsay, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan Collected Works, 1925
Yet, the painful lessons we would like to forget are precisely the ones which should be kept for reference. Santayana has reminded us that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and not without reason did Plato declare that a philosopher much have a good memory.Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948
It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.Source: Alfred Whitehead, Introduction to Mathematics, 1911
He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin... will obtain the clearest view of them.Source: Aristotle (Politics: 24–25)
... it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knowsSource: Golden Sayings of Epictetus
In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.Source: John Galt (Fictional Character)
An axiom is a statement that identifies the base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others, whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it.Source: John Galt (Fictional Character)
Liberty, the Mother, not the Daughter, of Order.
No costly mansion, no mass of gold, no pride of race, no grandeur of office, no charm or force of eloquence can bestow upon life so clear skied a serenity as a soul purged of evil deeds and thoughts which keeps as a fountain of life a character imperturbable and untainted.Plutarch
Before we can even ask how things might go wrong, we must first explain how they could ever go right.F.A. Hayek (unsourced, Taken from a 2010 lecture at the Mises Instittue)
Indeed, just as light defines itself and darkness, so truth sets the standard for itself and falsityA translated dictum of Spinoza (1632-1677)
It is a poor mind that will think with the multitude because it is a multitude: truth is not altered by the opinions of the vulgar or the confirmation of the many. It is more blessed to be wise in truth in face of opinion than to be wise in opinion in face of truthGiordano Bruno (1548-1600)
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior itoVirgil, Aeneid
Translation: Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.
