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”

32 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”

81 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
If those persons, who fancy themselves gifted with both the power and the right to define and punish other men's vices, would but turn their thoughts inwardly, they would probably find that they have a great work to do at home; and that, when that shall have been completed, they will be little disposed to do more towards correcting the vices of others, than simply to give to others the results of their experience and observation.

Lysander Spooner

Home, Men, Giving

Lysander Spooner (2006). “Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty”, p.16, ReadHowYouWant.com

4 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
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
For everybody has a natural right not only 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

"Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty".

34 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 highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit ... Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do ... He does not keep "protecting" you by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that.

Lysander Spooner

Taken, Responsibility, Liberty

"No Treason" by Lysander Spooner, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority, 1870.

16 Copy quote
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.

5 Copy quote
A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters.

Lysander Spooner

Men, Years, People

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

16 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Murray Rothbard

Benjamin Tucker

Frederic Bastiat

Frederic Bastiat

Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises

Lysander Spooner

Follow

Born: January 19, 1808
Died: May 14, 1887
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics