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A good government, no more than a bad one, has any right to live by robbery, murder, or any other crime.

— Lysander Spooner

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Government

More quotes by Lysander Spooner

A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

No Treason (1867)

Certainly no man can rightfully be required to join, or support, an association whose protection he does not desire.

Natural Law; or The Science of Justice (1882)

Law is the rule, principle, obligation or requirement of natural justice.

The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1860)

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

An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852)

For this reason, whoever desires liberty, should understand these vital facts, viz.

No Treason (1867)

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Lysander Spooner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.