“Our main conclusions about the state are that a minimal state, limited, to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified, but any more extensive state will violate persons' rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right.” WellsPersonsStatesCertainForceRightsFunctionProtectionConclusionContractsFraudEnforcementJustifiedTheftUnjustified Author:Robert Nozick
“The freedom to make and admit mistakes is at the core of the scientific process. If we are asked to forswear error, or worse, to say that error means fraud, then we cannot function as scientists.” IfsMeanTruthScienceProcessFreedomMistakeScientistFunctionErrorsCoreFraud Author:Robert Pollack
“Totalitarianism, however, does not so much promise an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia. A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable.” LongDoeMatterFactsRunningAgePastLostForceExistenceClassPromiseSucceedDemandFunctionStructureObjectivesFraudArtificialStableLong RunsPersistRulingTotalitarianismDisbeliefClingingSchizophreniaAlterationsObjective Truth Author:George Orwell
“I would have government defend the life and property of all citizens equally; protect all willing exchange; suppress and penalize all fraud, all misrepresentation, all violence, all predatory practices; invoke a common justice under law; and keep the records incidental to these functions. Even this is a bigger assignment than governments, generally, have proven capable of. Let governments do these things and do them well. Leave all else to men in free and creative effort.” MenWellsGovernmentLawPoliticsJusticeCommonEffortPracticeCreativeRecordsViolenceWillingCitizensProtectLetting GoCapableFunctionBiggerPropertyFraudProvenAssignmentsInvokePredatoryMisrepresentation Author:Leonard Read
“Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff.” WayHumansStuffEconomySuccessfulHuman NatureFunctionCorruptionCharacteristicsFraudMinimumEmbezzlement Author:Alan Greenspan
“A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves.” IfsKnowsGovernmentCertainIndividualForceFunctionFraud Author:Thomas B. Macaulay