Compulsion Quotes - Page 14

• What impels every man to the utmost exertion in the service of his fellow man. Is, in the market not compulsion on the part of gendarmes, hangmen and penal courts, it is self interest.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Self, Fellow Man

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

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• When we look at the astonishing material achievements of the West. we see these things as the result, not of compulsion or government action or the superior wisdom of a few, but of that system of competition and free enterprise, rewarding success and penalising failure, which enables every individual to participate by his private decisions in shaping the future of his society.

  Enoch Powell

  Government, Achievement, Decision

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• Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. ...I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Worship, Distinguished, Saved

  Thomas Jefferson (1976). “Thomas Jefferson, revolutionary philosopher: a selection of writings”, Barron's Educational Series

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• A newspaper can follow the compulsions, the desires of the readers. Take the English evening newspapers - they are following the readers' desires when they are interested only in the royal family gossip. But even the most objective, serious newspaper in the world designs the way in which the reader could or should think. That's unavoidable.

  Umberto Eco

  Thinking, Gossip, Design

  Interview with Chris Wallace, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 2, 2015.

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• ...the realm of freedom does not commence until the point is passed where labor under the compulsion of necessity and of external utility is required.

  Karl Marx

  Doe, Realms, Labor

  Karl Marx (2007). “Capital: A Critique of Political Economy - The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole”, p.954, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I have an unfortunate compulsion. I really would rather not do it, as it is very nerve-wracking and un-fun. But when it works, there is nothing like it.

  John Hodgman

  Fun, Nerves, Unfortunate

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• I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor - not a commentator or analyst. I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.

  Walter Cronkite

  Anchorman, Editors, News

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• I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well.

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Individual Effort, Magic

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• Without sounding cliché, music is like air. It provides for me. I don't necessarily look for what I can get out of it. It's a compulsion. I've always gotten out of it everything.

  Ishmael Butler

  Air, Looks, Music Is

  "Inhabiting Shabazz Palaces". Interview with Aly Comingore, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 29, 2014.

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• No man may initiate the use of physical force against others. No man-or group or society or government-has the right to assume the role of a criminal and initiate the use of physical compulsion against any man. Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. The ethical principle involved is simple and clear-cut: it is the difference between murder and self-defense.

  Ayn Rand

  Cutting, Simple, Men

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• For most people who write, writing is a compulsion. If I could be healed of it, I would, and I think a lot of people who write feel the same way.

  T. R. Pearson

  Writing, Thinking, People

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• A free soul ought not to pursue any study slavishly, for nothing that is learned under compulsion stays with the mind.

  Socrates

  Soul, Mind, Study

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• What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples' decisions for them?

  Tom Robbins

  Decision, Barricades, Property

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Skinny Legs and All”, p.138, Bantam

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• Government is an apparatus of compulsion and coercion.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Coercion

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• The Constitution was definitely and specifically designed to hobble all people who are so foolish as to think themselves capable of leading others by compulsion. It so functions today to an extent exasperating to the authoritarians - which is why they want to get rid of it.

  Leonard Read

  Thinking, People, Want

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• The state is the only institution entitled to apply coercion and compulsion and to inflict harm upon individuals. This tremendous power cannot be abandoned to the discretion of some men, however competent and clever they may deem themselves. It is necessary to restrict its application. This is the task of the laws.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Clever, Men, Law

  Ludwig Von Mises (1969). “Bureaucracy”, ICON Group International

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• To finance 'entitlement' programs, the government threatens force against the taxpayers who provide the money. Why are people who favor compulsion called humanitarians, while those who favor freedom are stigmatized as greedy?

  John Stossel

  Government, People, Favors

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• The freedom of individuals from compulsion or coercion never was, and is not now, the normal state of human affairs. The normal state for the ordinary person is tyranny, arbitrary control and abuse mainly by their own government.

  Walter E. Williams

  Government, Abuse, Normal

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• Government planning always involves compulsion.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Government, Planning

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• The public sector can only feed off the private sector; it necessarily lives parasitically upon the private economy. But this means that the productive resources of society - far from satisfying the wants of consumers - are now directed, by compulsion, away from these wants and needs. The consumers are deliberately thwarted, and the resources of the economy diverted from them to those activities desire by the parasitic bureaucracy and politicians.

  Murray Rothbard

  Mean, Desire, Needs

  Murray N. Rothbard (2011). “Economic Controversies”, p.422, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• A lot of people use a smiley face when they write letters. But it's this huge insane compulsion, like "I'm happy! I swear!" I'm not buying it. I don't believe them.

  Nate Lowman

  Believe, Writing, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I'm not sure I understand the compulsion to label things.

  Ti West

  Labels, Not Sure

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I am a most unhappy man. I accidentally ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. Our government is no longer based on the freedom of opinion, nor on the conviction and the majority decision, it is now a government which is subjected to the conviction and the compulsion of a small group of dominant men.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Country, Men, Decision

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• There are three things we have to let go of. The first is the compulsion to be successful. Second, is the compulsion to be right-especially theologically right. (That's merely an ego trip, and because of this "need" churches split in half, with both parties prisoners of their own egos.) Finally, there is the compulsion to be powerful, to have everything under control.

  Richard Rohr

  Letting Go, Powerful, Party

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• Do not trust those in whom the compulsion to punish is strong.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Strong

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