Liberty and Politicians

Where politicians flourish, long history has harshly taught us, people and their liberty wither.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Question

Do you feel that man actually is incapable, as an individual, of knowing what is right or wrong: and that only the wisdom of "society" can establish such values?

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

"divine" law

Just as a "divine" king once could say, "I am the state," governments today everywhere say they are the law

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Great Cheese

Sir, I have read the story Benjamin Button in Collier's and I wish to say that as a short story writer you would make a good lunatic. I have seen many pieces of cheese in my life but of all the pieces of cheese I have ever seen you are the biggest piece. I hate to waste a piece of stationery on you but I will.

Anonymous letter in response to F. Scott Fitzgerald short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, originally published in Collier's Magazine, 1921. 

Legal Plunder

When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frédéric Bastiat (The Law, 1850)

Blowback

Colonel, I hope you’ve learned that an occupying foreign force can never defeat a determined local populace.

Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons, Episode G.I.D'oh)