Lysander Spooner Quotes - Page 4

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• The very idea of law originates in men's natural rights. There is no other standard, than natural rights, by which civil law can be measured. Law has always been the name of that rule or principle of justice, which protects those rights. Thus we speak of natural law.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Rights, Law

  Lysander Spooner (1845). “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery”, p.7

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• It is manifest that the only security against the tyranny of the government lies in forcible resistance to the execution of the injustice; because the injustice will certainly be executed, unless it be forcibly resisted.

  Lysander Spooner

  Lying, Government Lies, Resistance

  Lysander Spooner (2004). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.11, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Doe, Constitution

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

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• A man who is without capital, and who, by prohibitions upon banking, is practically forbidden to hire any, is in a condition elevated but one degree above that of a chattel slave. He may live; but he can live only as the servant of others; compelled to perform such labor, and to perform it at such prices, as they may see fit to dictate.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Degrees, Banking

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• If two individuals enter into a contract to commit trespass, theft, robbery or murder upon a third, the contract is unlawful and void, simply because it is a contract to violate natural justice, or men's natural rights.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Rights, Two

  Lysander Spooner (1847). “The unconstitutionality of slavery: including parts first and second”, p.8

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• The 'nations,' as they are called, with whom our pretended ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators profess to make treaties, are as much myths as our own. On general principles of law and reason, there are no such 'nations.' ... Our pretended treaties, then, being made with no legitimate or bona fide nations, or representatives of nations, and being made, on our part, by persons who have no legitimate authority to act for us, have intrinsically no more validity than a pretended treaty made by the Man in the Moon with the king of the Pleiades.

  Lysander Spooner

  Kings, Moon, Men

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

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• A traitor is a betrayer - one who practices injury, while professing friendship. Benedict Arnold was a traitor, solely because, while professing friendship for the American cause, he attempted to injure it. An open enemy, however criminal in other respects, is no traitor.

  Lysander Spooner

  Practice, Enemy, Criminals

  Henry Bool, Lysander Spooner, Edwin C. Walker (1972). “Individualist anarchist pamphlets”

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• Doing a thing by law, or according to law, is only carrying the law into execution. And punishing a man by, or according to, the sentence or judgment of his peers, is only carrying that sentence or judgment into execution.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Law, Peers

  Lysander Spooner (2004). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.27, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• Now it is clear, that if the government can exclude, on account either of their opinions or feelings, any persons thus drawn by lot, the trial is no longer a trial by 'the country,' but only by a portion of the country.

  Lysander Spooner

  Country, Government, Feelings

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

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• It cannot be said that the Constitution formed 'the people of the United States,' for all time, into a corporation. It does not speak of 'the people' as a corporation, but as individuals. A corporation does not describe itself as 'we,' nor as 'people,' nor as 'ourselves.' Nor does a corporation, in legal language, have any 'posterity.'

  Lysander Spooner

  People, United States, Doe

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

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• The right of absolute and irresponsible dominion is the right of property, and the right of property is the right of absolute, irresponsible dominion. The two are identical; the one necessarily implying the other.

  Lysander Spooner

  Two, Dominion, Identical

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

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• Vices are not crimes.

  Lysander Spooner

  Vices, Prison, Crime

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• The constitution of the United States declares that "no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts."

  Lysander Spooner

  Law, Natural, States

  "The Unconstitutionality of Slavery".

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• Majorities and minorities cannot rightfully be taken at all into account in deciding questions of justice.

  Lysander Spooner

  Taken, Justice, Majority

  Henry Bool, Lysander Spooner, Edwin C. Walker (1972). “Individualist anarchist pamphlets”

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• No man can delegate,... any right of arbitrary dominion over a 3rd person; for that would imply a right in the 1st person, not only to make the 3rd person his slave, but also a right to dispose of him as a slave to still other persons. Any contract to do this is necessarily a criminal one...To call such a contract a “constitution” does not at all lessen its criminality, or add to its validity.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Criminals, Doe

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• The law does not require a man to cease to be a man, and act without regard to consequences, when he becomes a juror.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Law, Doe

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

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• The desertion of Jesus, by his followers, furnishes an argument in support of the supposition that he attempted to be king of the Jews, rather than that he was a superior being.

  Lysander Spooner

  Jesus, Kings, Support

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

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• There is not, in the Constitution, a syllable that implies that persons, born within the territorial limits of the United States, have allegiance imposed upon them on account of their birth in the country, or that they will be judged by any different rule, on the subject of treason, than persons of foreign birth.

  Lysander Spooner

  Country, United States, Different

  Henry Bool, Lysander Spooner, Edwin C. Walker (1972). “Individualist anarchist pamphlets”

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• I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour - for the horse was soon tackled - was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.

  Lysander Spooner

  Morning, Horse, Party

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• There is perhaps not an enlightened Christian in America who, notwithstanding he may believe that, at the time of Jesus, men were possessed of devils, believes that they ever have been in any other instance, either before or since.

  Lysander Spooner

  Christian, Jesus, Believe

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

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• A married woman has the same natural right to acquire and hold property, and to make all contracts that she is mentally competent to make reasonably, as has a married man, or any other man.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Married, Natural

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

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• Jesus never instructed men to do what was right because it was right; yet this is the true reason why they should do it.

  Lysander Spooner

  Jesus, Men, Reason Why

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

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• If it be said that the consent of the strongest party in a nation, is all that is necessary to justify the establishment of a government that shall have authority over the weaker party, it may be answered that the most despotic governments in the world rest upon that very principle, viz.: the consent of the strongest party.

  Lysander Spooner

  Party, Government, Principles

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• The rescue of a person, who is assaulted, or restrained of his liberty, without authority of law, is not only morally, but legally, a meritorious act; for every body is under obligation to go to the assistance of one who is assailed by assassins, robbers, ravishers, kidnappers, or ruffians of any kind.

  Lysander Spooner

  Law, Liberty, Assassins

  Lysander Spooner (1850). “A Defence for Fugitive Slaves”, p.27

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• The imaginations of believers have dressed up and exaggerated the excellence of the style and matter of the New Testament generally, in the same manner, in which they have the moral instructions of Jesus.

  Lysander Spooner

  Jesus, Imagination, Style

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

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