Lysander Spooner Quotes

Quotes about:

• But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, Constitution, Cases

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

  33 Copy quote

• 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”

  82 Copy quote

• 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”

  51 Copy quote

• 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

  41 Copy quote

• 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

  46 Copy quote

• 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.

  47 Copy quote

• The number who actually consented to the Constitution of the United States, at the first, was very small. Considered as the act of the whole people, the adoption of the Constitution was the merest farce and imposture, binding upon nobody.

  Lysander Spooner

  Numbers, People, Adoption

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  29 Copy quote

• These so-called governments are in reality only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined, and constantly on the alert.

  Lysander Spooner

  Reality, Government, Band

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

  37 Copy quote

• 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

  61 Copy quote

• Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government of course. It has all the powers that it chooses to exercise. There is no other or at least no more accurate definition of a despotism than this.

  Lysander Spooner

  Exercise, Government, People

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Legal writings”

  7 Copy quote

• 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”

  22 Copy quote

• The Rothschilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are the representatives and agents - men who never think of lending a shilling to their next-door neighbors, for purposes of honest industry, unless upon the most ample security, and at the highest rate of interest - stand ready, at all times, to lend money in unlimited amounts to those robbers and murderers, who call themselves governments, to be expended in shooting down those who do not submit quietly to being robbed and enslaved.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Thinking, Doors

  Lysander Spooner (2013). “No Treason”, p.50, Read Books Ltd

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  25 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• All governments, the worst on earth, and the most tyrannical on earth, are free governments to that portion of the people who voluntarily support them.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, People, Support

  13 Copy quote

• 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".

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  22 Copy quote

• A slave government is an oligarchy; and one, too, of the most arbitrary and criminal character.

  Lysander Spooner

  Character, Government, Criminals

  Lysander Spooner (1845). “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery”, p.125

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract—the Constitution—made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, sealed, delivered, witnessed, or acknowledged; and which few persons, compared with the whole number that are claimed to be bound by it, have ever read, or even seen, or ever will read, or see.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Years, Numbers

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

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  22 Copy quote

• The strong are always free by virtue of their superior strength. So long as government is a mere contest as to which of two parties shall rule the other, the weaker must always succumb. And whether the contest be carried on with ballots or bullets, the principle is the same; for under the theory of government now prevailing, the ballot either signifies a bullet, or it signifies nothing. And no one can consistently use a ballot, unless he intends to use a bullet, if the latter should be needed to insure submission to the former.

  Lysander Spooner

  Strong, Party, Two

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

  18 Copy quote

• The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that-however bloody-can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Two, Long

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.9

  36 Copy quote

• Majorities, as such, afford no guarantees for justice. They are men of the same nature as minorities. They have the same passions for fame, power, and money, as minorities; and are liable and likely to be equally - perhaps more than equally, because more boldly - rapacious, tyrannical and unprincipled, if intrusted with power.

  Lysander Spooner

  Passion, Men, Justice

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

  13 Copy quote

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