Lysander Spooner Quotes

The only security men can have for their political liberty consists in keeping their money in their own pockets.

No treason is committed so long as a man is neither reaping any peculiar benefits from the government, nor making himself responsible for its acts.

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves.

Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property. Crimes are those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another.

The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualism regarded as the denial of all morals and of all moral laws.

Every man has a natural and unalienable right to his own earnings; and no man can, without robbery, take away this property of another.

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

A man’s natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime.

Government can only destroy wealth; it cannot create wealth.

The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression.

The man who does not claim the right to use and dispose of a portion of his earnings, must be a slave, however he may be at liberty in all other respects.

Lysander Spooner Quotes part 2

The natural right of all persons to create whatever currency they choose is, of course, understood to be in no wise hereby infringed.

A man’s rights are neither diminished, nor his moral obligations increased by the acquirement of property.

Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.

No one can say with truth, that either the whole, or any part of these three millions of people are under any contract or obligation whatever to support the United States.

There is no such thing as contract, except as a measure of a man’s desires to be expressed in action.

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves.

Laws: We keep our criminals in the Senate and House of Representatives – depending on which one gets criminalized more.

No effort could be better spent.

The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance cut off the only security men can have for their political liberty.

Until death it is unknown what restraints may not be imposed on them.

The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: ‘Your money, or your life.’ And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.

A man’s natural right to use his faculties to live, acquire, and enjoy liberty and property, cannot be the gift of another man, or of a number of men.

A man’s natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions.

A thief is a thief, whether he steals by individual practice, or by national practice.

The very nature of government is to invade the liberties of individuals, both in direct violation of their rights, and by the offices it assigns to its agents, and the powers it imparts to them.

To say, therefore, that the majority in congress have a right to legislate in regard to money, and keep the people from using the only currency they prefer to use, is to say, by implication, that the majority have a right to enslave the people.

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

The right to vote is not, however, a natural right that follows from any apparent reason why one person, rather than another, should be officially recognized to manage other people’s affairs.

If taxes were voluntarily paid, they would cease to be taxes, and become benevolence.

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

A man is bound to work on his own time, and for his own benefit, as exclusively as he pleases.

The right of revolution is inherent in man.

It is erroneous to talk of government as an independent power, like the sun, or the ocean, or electricity.

There is no middle ground of any sort reserved for man, but through the press.

The right of property is a natural right.

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men.

Law instead of being justice, as it should be, is nothing better than a cheap, dumb, vicious wielder of the sword of despotism, liberalism, or fanaticism.

All other legislators and magistrates are only his (the people’s) subordinates.

They can only steal by taking advantage of his ignorance, his weakness, or his necessity.

Government, then, is a mere contract.

The very purpose of the ‘Bill of Rights’ was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts.

The principle of equal rights is a principle of denial, not assent.

You need hope first of all – hope that things may change, and find out what price you have to pay, later on.

Is the government to be nothing more than a private corporation, instituted for private purposes, and for the exclusive profit, emolument and aggrandizement of individual holders of its stock?