Albert J. Nock Quotes

Quotes about:

• Like all predatory or parasitic institutions, its first instinct is that of self-preservation. All its enterprises are directed first towards preserving its own life, and, second, towards increasing its own power and enlarging the scope of its own activity. For the sake of this it will, and regularly does, commit any crime which circumstances make expedient.

  Albert J. Nock

  Self, Sake, Firsts

  "The Criminality of the State". "The American Mercury" Magazine, March 1939.

  55 Copy quote

• The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

  Albert J. Nock

  Important, Moments

  48 Copy quote

• In proportion as you give the state power to do things for you, you give it power to do things to you.

  Albert J. Nock

  Giving, States, Proportion

  37 Copy quote

• The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime... It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants, whether the property of citizen or of alien.

  Albert J. Nock

  Exercise, Hands, Citizens

  "On Doing the Right Thing and Other Essays". Book by Albert J. Nock, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York and Londo, 1928.

  19 Copy quote

• There's only one way to improve society. Present it with a single improved unit: yourself.

  Albert J. Nock

  Way, Units, One Way

  9 Copy quote

• There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.

  Albert J. Nock

  Mean, Men, Two

  "Our Enemy, the State" by Albert J. Nock (p. 59), 1935.

  20 Copy quote

• The simple truth is that our businessmen do not want a government that will let business alone. They want a government they can use.

  Albert J. Nock

  Simple, Government, Want

  3 Copy quote

• According to my observations, mankind are among the most easily tamable and domesticable of all creatures in the animal world. They are readily reducible to submission, so readily conditionable (to coin a word) as to exhibit an almost incredibly enduring patience under restraint and oppression of the most flagrant character. So far are they from displaying any overweening love of freedom that they show a singular contentment with a condition of servitorship, often showing a curious canine pride in it, and again often simply unaware that they are existing in that condition.

  Albert J. Nock

  Character, Pride, Animal

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 314), 1943.

  22 Copy quote

• Another strange notion pervading whole peoples is that the State has money of its own; and nowhere is this absurdity more firmly fixed than in America. The State has no money. It produces nothing. It existence is purely parasitic, maintained by taxation; that is to say, by forced levies on the production of others. 'Government money,' of which one hears so much nowadays, does not exist; there is no such thing.

  Albert J. Nock

  Government, America, Doe

  20 Copy quote

• The idea that the State originated to serve any kind of social purpose is completely unhistorical. It originated in conquest and confiscation - that is to say, in crime. It originated for the purpose of maintaining the division of society into an owning-and-exploiting class and a propertyless dependent class - that is, for a criminal purpose.

  Albert J. Nock

  Class, Ideas, Criminals

  "The Criminality of the State". "The American Mercury" Magazine, March 1939.

  14 Copy quote

• The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed - we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of.

  Albert J. Nock

  Moral Fiber, Law, Proud

  "On Doing the Right Thing". "The American Mercury" Magazine, 1925.

  4 Copy quote

• The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.

  Albert J. Nock

  Rights, Ideas, Justice

  "Our Enemy, the State" by Albert J. Nock (p. 49), 1935.

  16 Copy quote

• Man tends always to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion.

  Albert J. Nock

  Men, Desire, Needs

  "Our Enemy, the State" by Albert J. Nock (p. 59), 1935.

  0 Copy quote

• The superficial distinctions of Fascism, Bolshevism, Hitlerism, are the concern of journalists and publicists; the serious student sees in them only one root-idea of a complete conversion of social power into State power.

  Albert J. Nock

  Ideas, Roots, Serious

  "Our Enemy, The State". Book by Albert Jay Nock, Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Press, 1950.

  11 Copy quote

• The primary reason for a tariff is that it enables the exploitation of the domestic consumer by a process indistinguishable from sheer robbery.

  Albert J. Nock

  Tariffs, Libertarian, Reason

  16 Copy quote

• It is easier to seize wealth than to produce it, and as long as the State makes the seizure of wealth a matter of legalized privilege, so long will the squabble for that privilege go on.

  Albert J. Nock

  Long, Goes On, Matter

  14 Copy quote

• The competition of social power with State power is always disadvantaged, since the State can arrange the terms of competition to suit itself, even to the point of outlawing any exercise of social power whatever in the premises; in other words, giving itself a monopoly.

  Albert J. Nock

  Exercise, Giving, Competition

  14 Copy quote

• Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told.

  Albert J. Nock

  Responsibility, Political, Soldier

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 319), 1943.

  11 Copy quote

• It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.

  Albert J. Nock

  Money, War, States

  10 Copy quote

• I have often wondered why the sounds of the beating drums do not make the marching soldiers shoot their officers and go home.

  Albert J. Nock

  Home, Soldier, Sound

  6 Copy quote

• If you do not want the State to act like a criminal, you must disarm it as you would a criminal; you must keep it weak. The State will always be criminal in proportion to its strength; a weak State will always be as criminal as it can be, or dare be, but if it is kept down to the proper limit of weakness - which, by the way, is a vast deal lower limit than people are led to believe - its criminality may be safely got on with.

  Albert J. Nock

  Believe, People, Weakness

  4 Copy quote

• When politicians say "I'm in politics," it may or may not be possible to trust them, but when they say, "I'm in public service," you know you should flee.

  Albert J. Nock

  Liberty, May, Libertarian

  3 Copy quote

• It is certainly true that whatever a man may do or say, the most significant thing about him is what he thinks; and significant also is how he came to think it, why he continued to think it, or, if he did not continue, what the influences were which caused him to change his mind.

  Albert J. Nock

  Men, Thinking, Significant Things

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man". Book by Albert J. Nock, 1943.

  7 Copy quote

• The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.

  Albert J. Nock

  States, Testimony, Primitive

  "Our Enemy, the State" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 44), 1935.

  10 Copy quote

• By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.

  Albert J. Nock

  Principles, Mouths, Way

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 305), 1943.

  10 Copy quote

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