Lysander Spooner Quotes

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• 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; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government.

  Lysander Spooner

  Character, Men, Rights

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.7

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• 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.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Facts, Threat

  Lysander Spooner (1972). “Let's Abolish Government”, Ayer Company Pub

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• The apology, that is constantly put forth for the injustice of government, viz., that a man must consent to give up some of his rights, in order to have his other rights protected - involves a palpable absurdity, both legally and politically.

  Lysander Spooner

  Giving Up, Apology, Men

  Lysander Spooner (1845). “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery”, p.21

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• If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its arbitrary will, and kill him if he resists.

  Lysander Spooner

  Taken, Men, Rights

  Lysander Spooner (1886). “A Letter to Grover Cleveland on His False Inaugural Address, the Usurpation and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People”

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• Legally speaking, there are no such things as 'public rights,' as distinguished from individual rights. Legally speaking, there is no such creature or thing as 'the public.'

  Lysander Spooner

  Rights, Individual, Distinguished

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

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• Children learn many principles of natural law at a very early age. For example: they learn that when one child has picked up an apple or a flower, it is his, and that his associates must not take it from him against his will.

  Lysander Spooner

  Children, Flower, Law

  Lysander Spooner (1847). “The unconstitutionality of slavery: including parts first and second”, p.141

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• All restraints upon man's natural liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree.

  Lysander Spooner

  Freedom, Simple, Men

  Lysander Spooner (1973). “No Treason and a Letter to Thomas F. Bayard”

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• To say that majorities, as such, have a right to rule minorities, is equivalent to saying that minorities have, and ought to have, no rights, except such as majorities please to allow them.

  Lysander Spooner

  Rights, Majority, Minorities

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.8

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• But that the people are stronger than the government, and will resist in extreme cases, our governments would be little or nothing else than organized systems of plunder and oppression.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, People, Stronger

  Lysander Spooner (2004). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.13, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• A government that can at pleasure accuse, shoot, and hang men, as traitors, for the one general offence of refusing to surrender themselves and their property unreservedly to its arbitrary will, can practice any and all special and particular oppressions it pleases.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Practice, Special

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.15

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

  Lysander Spooner

  Perjury, Tyranny, Capable

  Lysander Spooner (2004). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.9, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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

  Lysander Spooner

  Freedom, Men, Years

  Lysander Spooner (1973). “No Treason and a Letter to Thomas F. Bayard”

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• Taking a man's money without his consent, is also as much robbery, when it is done by millions of men, acting in concert, and calling themselves a government, as when it is done by a single individual, acting on his own responsibility, and calling himself a highwayman.

  Lysander Spooner

  Responsibility, Men, Acting

  Lysander Spooner (1852). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.222

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• No government knows any limits to its power except the endurance of the people.

  Lysander Spooner

  Power, Government, People

  Lysander Spooner (1852). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.19

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• If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have, a single honest dollar in its treasury. If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, United States, Dollars

  "Let's Abolish Government".

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• No principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently false than this; or more self-evidently fatal to all political freedom. Yet it triumphed in the field, and is now assumed to be established. If it really be established, the number of slaves, instead of having been diminished by the war, has been greatly increased; for a man, thus subjected to a government that he does not want, is a slave.

  Lysander Spooner

  War, Men, Self

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.3

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• Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given.

  Lysander Spooner

  Reality, Government, Assuming

  Lysander Spooner (1847). “The unconstitutionality of slavery: including parts first and second”, p.153

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• It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, by which he shall surrender to others a single one of what are commonly called his 'natural, inherent, inalienable rights.'

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Rights, Surrender

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

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• It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and calling themselves a government, can acquire any rights whatever over other men, or other men's property, which they had not before, as individuals.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Rights, Self

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

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• Now a slave is not 'held' by any legal contract, obligation, duty, or authority, which the laws will enforce. He is 'held' only by brute force. One person beats another until the latter will obey him, work for him, if he require it, or do nothing if he require it.

  Lysander Spooner

  Law, Slave, Authority

  Lysander Spooner (1850). “A Defence for Fugitive Slaves”, p.51

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• A man's 'original and natural right' to make all contracts that are 'intrinsically obligatory,' and to coerce the fulfillment of them, is one of the most valuable and indispensable of all human possessions.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Natural, Contracts

  Lysander Spooner (1886). “A Letter to Grover Cleveland on His False Inaugural Address, the Usurpation and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People”

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• All these cries of having "abolished slavery," of having "saved the country," of having "preserved the union," of establishing a "government of consent," and of "maintaining the national honor," are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats - so transparent that they ought to deceive no one.

  Lysander Spooner

  Country, Government, Honor

  Lysander Spooner (1972). “Let's Abolish Government”, Ayer Company Pub

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• The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this - that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, Ideas, Shots

  Lysander Spooner (1972). “Let's Abolish Government”, Ayer Company Pub

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• Our constitutions purport to be established by 'the people,' and, in theory, 'all the people' consent to such government as the constitutions authorize. But this consent of 'the people' exists only in theory. It has no existence in fact. Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given.

  Lysander Spooner

  Reality, Government, People

  Lysander Spooner (1847). “The unconstitutionality of slavery: including parts first and second”, p.153

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• For everybody has a natural right to defend his own person and property against aggressors, but also to go to the assistance and defence of everybody else, whose person or property is invaded. The natural right of each individual to defend his own person and property against an aggressor, and to go to the assistance and defence of every one else whose person or property is invaded, is a right without which men could not exist on earth.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Earth, Citizenship

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