For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be a falsehood, or falsehood a truth.
Category: laws
Distinctions in society
Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.
Interpreting laws corrupts them
Let the laws be clear, uniform and precise; to interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them.
Drug crime
You wanna get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let’s just get rid of all the drug laws.
Life, liberty, and property
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
Compound interest
The mistakes made by Congress wouldn’t be so bad if the next Congress didn’t keep trying to correct them.