Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lysander Spooner
Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllGovernmentMenIfsPersonsLawPeopleNaturalPrinciplesRightsSlaveIndividualConsentContractsLibertyStatesJusticePropertyRobbersConstitutionCrime

Famous Lysander Spooner Quotes

“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.”

IfsMenWantDoeHas BeensWarSelfGovernmentPoliticalNumbersPrinciplesFieldsSlavePolitical Freedom
Book:No Treason: No. 1-
Create image

“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.”

MenPersonsMadeReasonLawIndividualNationsPresidentPrinciplesHe ManKingsMoonAuthoritySlaveryMythIndividualismRepresentativesSecretarySenatorsSovereigntyTreatiesAmbassadorsValidityIndividual RightsMan In The Moon
Book:The collected works of Lysander Spooner
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenGivingLittlesPersonsHas BeensHomeTurnsResultsVicesObservationFancyGiftedGreat WorkCorrecting
Book:Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty
Create image

“And there is no difference, in principle - but only in degree - between political and chattel slavery. The former, no less than the latter, denies a man's ownership of himself and the products of his labor; and asserts that other men may own him, and dispose of him and his property, for their uses, and at their pleasure.”

MenMayUsePoliticalDifferencesPleasurePrinciplesProductsDegreesLaborSlaveryPropertyDenyFormerLatterOwnership
Book:Individualist anarchist pamphlets
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenGovernmentTakenRightsSoldierSubmitConsentArbitrary
Book: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
Create image

“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.”

MenWorldWholeCharacterGovernmentNamesNaturalMillionsRightsCrimeCallingCommittedWhole WorldOne ManRobbersNatural RightsTrue CharacterInfringement
Book:No Treason: No. 1-
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenPassionJusticeFameMajorityGuaranteesMinoritiesLiable
Book:The collected works of Lysander Spooner
Create image

“A man's 'original and natural right' to make all contracts that are 'intrinsically obligatory,' and to coerce the fulfillment of them, is one of the most valuable and indispensable of all human possessions.”

MenHumansNaturalOriginalsPossessionValuableFulfillmentContractsIndispensableCoerce
Book: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
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenTwoIndividualNaturalJusticeRightsThirdsMurderCommitContractsVoidTheftRobberyNatural RightsUnlawfulNatural Justice
Book:The unconstitutionality of slavery: including parts first and second
Create image

“Martyrdom is evidence only of a man's honesty - it is no evidence that he is not mistaken. Men have suffered martyrdom for all sorts of opinions in politics and in religion; yet they could not therefore have all been in the right; although they could give no stronger evidence that they believed themselves in the right.”

MenGivingOpinionHonestyEvidenceStrongerMistakenMartyrdom
Book:The Deist's Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity, Etc
Create image

“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.”

MenYearsPersonsMadeWholeThreeNumbersMillionsGenerationsYears AgoConstitutionBoundsContractsNeverthelessEightyBindingThree Generations
Book:The collected works of Lysander Spooner
Create image

“Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, protect the defenseless, assist the weak, and enlighten the ignorant. But these are simply moral duties, of which each man must be his own judge, in each particular case, as to whether, and how, and how far, he can, or will perform them.”

MenCareLibertyMoralCasesDoubtEconomicParticularJudgingDutyProtectWeakSickFellowsLibertarianHungryIgnorantNakedNo DoubtLibertarianismShelterHomelessFellow ManEnlighteningDefenselessMoral Duty
Book:Natural Law, Or, The Science of Justice: A Treatise on Natural Law, Natural Justice, Natural Rights, Natural Liberty, and Natural Society : Showing that All Legislation Whatsoever is an Absurdity, a Usurpation, and a Crime
Create image

“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. And whenever any number of men, calling themselves a government, do anything to another man, or to his property, which they had no right to do as individuals, they thereby declare themselves trespassers, robbers, or murderers, according to the nature of their acts.”

MenSelfGovernmentIndividualNumbersRightsCallingPropertyAcquireEvidentMurdererAnother ManRobbersConspiring
Author:Lysander Spooner
Create image

“And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.”

PeopleIfsMenWorldGovernmentPurposeHe ManDeserveMurderSlaveLatterVillainLoanPirateEnablingRobbersTradersHuntedSlave Trade
Book:No Treason and a Letter to Thomas F. Bayard
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingMenGovernmentPurposeNextInterestClassDoorsHonestSecurityReadyIndustryAmountHighestRateNeighborTyrannyAll TimeAgentsShootingSubmitRepresentativesUnlimitedMurdererLendingRobbersLendersNext Door NeighborsMoney Lenders
Book:No Treason
Create image

“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.”

MenLongTwoBodyGovernmentPrinciplesMastersMajoritySlaveMereRefuseMinoritiesResolveBloodyContestsAnarchistBe A Slave
Book:No Treason: No. 1-
Create image

“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.”

MenPersonsEarthIndividualNaturalPropertyCitizenshipAssistanceDefenceAggressors
Author:Lysander Spooner
Create image

“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.”

MenPersonsDoeStillsConstitutionAddSlaveCriminalsContractsArbitraryDominionValidityDelegatesCriminality
Author:Lysander Spooner
Create image