“You're people, in short, who must be stupid, insane, or evil to continue arguing in the face of indisputable facts and irrefutable logic that others must be forced into a state of helplessness and victimized by individual criminals or the state. Stupid, insane, or evil.” PeopleStatesFactsFacesEvilIndividualStupidLogicCriminalsArguingInsaneHelplessness Author:L. Neil Smith
“Let's make it clear for the dimmest bulbs among you: the kids at Columbine High didn't die from too many guns, they died from too few. I'm not suggesting that the teachers should have carried guns not as franchised agents of the state. They should have carried guns as ordinary individuals, exercising a sacred right, and in performance of a solemn duty to protect the young lives that were placed very foolishly, as it turned out in their hands.” ShouldStatesHandsKidsYoungDiesIndividualClearTeacherDutyExerciseProtectOrdinaryGunShould HavePerformancesDiedSacredAgentsSolemnSuggestingBulbsColumbineYoung Life Author:L. Neil Smith
“Most libertarians agree that all rights are, in effect, property rights, beginning with this fundamental right to self-ownership and control of one's own life. As owners of their own lives, individuals are completely free to do absolutely anything they wish with them provided, of course, that it doesn't violate the identical right of others whether the people around them approve of what they do or not.” PeopleSelfCoursesIndividualWishRightsEffectsAgreeFundamentalsPropertyLibertarianOwnersOwnershipIdenticalProperty RightsSelf OwnershipOwnership And Control Author:L. Neil Smith
“The trouble is with socialism, which resembles a form of mental illness more than it does a philosophy. Socialists get bees in their bonnets. And because they chronically lack any critical faculty to examine and evaluate their ideas, and because they are pathologically unwilling to consider the opinions of others, and most of all, because socialism is a mindset that regards the individual and his rights as insignificant, compared to whatever the socialist believes the group needs, terrible, terrible things happen when socialists acquire power.” NeedsBelieveDoeIdeasPhilosophyHappensFormIndividualOpinionRightsTroubleGroupsTerribleRegardIllnessCriticalMindsetThings HappenSocialismMental IllnessAcquireFacultyBeesSocialistInsignificantTerrible ThingsUnwillingEvaluateBonnets Author:L. Neil Smith
“Many individuals spend a considerable portion of their lifetimes in terror of one imagined catastrophe or another. The classic is that your immortal soul will be consigned to eternal torment in the never-ending subterranean barbecue if you fail to follow the whacky edicts of one particular set of puckered dogwhistles or another. You may recall from the great movie Strange Days that a "dogwhistle" is a guy whose asshole is so tight that when he farts, only dogs can hear him.” IfsMaySoulGuyIndividualFailingDogParticularStrangeEternalLifetimeTerrorClassicImmortalPortionsRecallsCatastropheTormentNever EndingFartBarbecueImmortal SoulStrange Days Author:L. Neil Smith
“Socialism, whether it's the 'soft tyranny' of the EuroAmerican management state or the murderously repressive forms taken by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot, is all about disindividuation, a steady, relentless erasure of the individual differences among us, everything that makes us who we are. 'Everybody in, nobody out!' is the marching mantra of militant collectivized medicine, but it accurately describes all other aspects of collectivism as well. No alternatives allowed, no choices, no individualism, no individuality, and ultimately, no individuation.” WellsStatesFormChoicesIndividualDifferencesTakenAspectManagementMedicineIndividualityTyrannySocialismAlternativesWho We ArePotSteadyIndividualismRelentlessMantrasCollectivismMilitantMaoIndividuationIndividual Differences Author:L. Neil Smith
“If conservatives really believed in individual liberty, as they endlessly claim and if they used both halves of their brains then they'd be libertarians. Instead, they sabotage themselves, and their cause, by constantly generating one spurious reason after another to deprive other people of their freedom.” PeopleIfsReasonUsedIndividualCausesBrainHalfLibertyClaimsLibertarianSabotageIndividual Liberty Author:L. Neil Smith
“Of all the groups that sometimes claim to own your life, family is the hardest to defend your individual sovereignty from.” SometimesIndividualGroupsClaimsHardestSovereigntyFamily Life Author:L. Neil Smith
“Even if drugs are fully as destructive as they are usually claimed to be, it is morally wrong and demonstrably more destructive for government to deprive people of their unalienable, individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to make an utter mess of their own lives. Since human beings are inclined to learn more from the mistakes they make, rather than from their triumphs, the right to fail, for individuals and groups alike, may be even more important than the right to succeed, and it must be fiercely protected at almost any cost.” PeopleIfsHumansMayImportantGovernmentIndividualHuman BeingsMistakeFailingGroupsCostDrugSucceedMessTriumphDestructiveProtected Author:L. Neil Smith
“Government can only do two things: It can beat people up and kill them. Or it can threaten to do so. When it seems to be doing something else - for example, handing out money or, say, surplus cheese - what's actually going on is that something has been taken away from one set of individuals by deadly force or the threat of deadly force, a hefty middleman's fee deducted, and whatever is left thrown to peasants delighted to receive stolen goods.” PeopleHas BeensTwoSeemsGovernmentIndividualLeftForceTakenExampleBeatsThreatTwo ThingsThrownGoodsCheeseStolenPeasantsDelightedFeesSurplusMiddlemenDeadly Force Author:L. Neil Smith
“Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon - rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything - any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.” MenHumansChildrenIndividualWeaponsAskingResponsibleEvery ManPermissionMen WomenConcealedRiflesHandgunsShotguns Author:L. Neil Smith
“The freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right - subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility.” HumansChoicesIndividualSocialProcessNaturalSubjectsWeaponsArgumentFundamentalsDemocraticGroundedUtilityDemocratic Process Author:L. Neil Smith
“It is individuals who must be encouraged to undertake the unprecedented - and unprecedentedly profitable - effort to prevent the annihilation of the human race.” HumansIndividualEffortRaceHuman RaceGenocideProfitableUnprecedentedAnnihilationBe Encouraged Author:L. Neil Smith
