At the heart of western freedom and democracy is the belief that
the individual man … is the touchstone of value, and all society,
groups, the state, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement
of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and
abiding practice of any western society.
Category: individualism
If you don’t work, neither should you eat
The necessity of every one paying in his own labor for what he consumes, affords the only legitimate and effectual check to excessive luxury, which has so often ruined individuals, states and empires; and which has now brought almost universal bankruptcy upon us.
Public sector vs. private
Big Government flourishes with small citizens. This is true as a matter of ideological cause and effect: by definition, the more powerful you believe the centralized State should be, the less respect you have for individual citizens.
Continue reading “Public sector vs. private”
Ask not
Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.
Circumstances
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.
Think for yourself
Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it — that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life.
Self governance
Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so.
The basis for republicanism
Government of the self was the original basis for republican government, reflecting the view that civil society was much more than politics. Society was made up of men and women who gave order to their lives by entering into associations on a voluntary basis, quite apart from government, for all the various reasons of fellowship, philanthrophy, faith, and commerce.
The primacy of the individual
Absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority.
Beware the do-gooder
If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.