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

“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

“There has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the power and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what is the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their power, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and find all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws.”

LifePersonsHas BeensWarFactsLawPoliticsJusticeLibertyMoralOpinionPrinciplesCasesJudgingDutyDrugCriminalsPrimariesUsersExecutionUnjustAccusedJuryResistingParamountConstitutional LawJudge And Jury
Author:Lysander Spooner
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

“The strong are always free by virtue of their superior strength. So long as government is a mere contest as to which of two parties shall rule the other, the weaker must always succumb. And whether the contest be carried on with ballots or bullets, the principle is the same; for under the theory of government now prevailing, the ballot either signifies a bullet, or it signifies nothing. And no one can consistently use a ballot, unless he intends to use a bullet, if the latter should be needed to insure submission to the former.”

IfsShouldLongTwoUseGovernmentStrongPartyPrinciplesVirtueTheoryNeededMereSuperiorsFormerLatterConsistentlyBulletsContestsSubmissionBallotsPrevailing
Book:No Treason: No. 1-
Create image