Quoty: quotes tagged with 'force'

When a man feels that he has discovered a socia...

When a man feels that he has discovered a social order different from the one that has come into being through the natural tendencies of mankind, he must, perforce, in order to have his invention accepted, paint in the most somber colors the results of the order he seeks to abolish. Therefore, the political theorists to whom I refer, while enthusiastically and perhaps exaggeratedly proclaiming the perfectibility of mankind, fall into the strange contradiction of saying that society is constantly deteriorating. According to them, men are today a thousand times more wretched than they were in ancient times, under the feudal system and the yoke of slavery; the world has become a hell. If it were possible to conjure up the Paris of the tenth century, I confidently believe that such a thesis would prove untenable.

Secondly, they are led to condemn even the basic motive power of human actions�I mean self-interest�since it has brought about such a state of affairs. Let us note that man is made in such a way that he seeks pleasure and shuns pain. From this source, I agree, come all the evils of society: war, slavery, monopoly, privilege; but from this source also come all the good things of life, since the satisfaction of wants and the avoidance of suffering are the motives of human action. The question, then, is to determine whether this motivating force which, though individual, is so universal that it becomes a social phenomenon, is not in itself a basic principle of progress.

In any case, do not the social planners realize that this principle, inherent in man's very nature, will follow them into their new orders, and that, once there, it will wreak more serious havoc than in our natural order, in which one individual's excessive claims and self-interest are at least held in bounds by the resistance of all the others? These writers always assume two inadmissible premises: that society, as they conceive it, will be led by infallible men completely immune to the motive of self-interest; and that the masses will allow such men to lead them.

Finally, our social planners do not seem in the least concerned about the implementation of their program. How will they gain acceptance for their systems? How will they persuade all other men simultaneously to give up the basic motive for all their actions: the impulse to satisfy their wants and to avoid suffering? To do so it would be necessary, as Rousseau said, to change the moral and physical nature of man.

To induce all men, simultaneously, to cast off, like an ill-fitting garment, the present social order in which mankind has evolved since its beginning and adopt, instead, a contrived system, becoming docile cogs in the new machine, only two means, it seems to me, are available: force or universal consent.

Either the social planner must have at his disposal force capable of crushing all resistance, so that human beings become mere wax between his fingers to be molded and fashioned to his whim; or he must gain by persuasion consent so complete, so exclusive, so blind even, that the use of force is made unnecessary.

I defy anyone to show me a third means of setting up and putting into operation a phalanstery or any other artificial social order.

Author: Frederic Bastiat, Source: http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basHar.html
Saved by cboyack in society action choice economy force economics politician economist

Every action is known by its consequences: What...

Every action is known by its consequences: What causes benefit is 'good;' what causes harm is 'bad.'

Author: Paul A. Rosenberg, Source: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men
Saved by inyucho in politics government freedom force political coercion libertarianism libertarian

Politics is the art and science of managing cen...

Politics is the art and science of managing centralized coercion.

Author: Paul A. Rosenberg, Source: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men
Saved by inyucho in politics economy force economics political coercion libertarianism libertarian

If there is any such thing as "intellectual pro...

If there is any such thing as "intellectual property" or "intellectual territory", then it can only be rightly defended by intellectual battle, never by physical force.

Author: Sean Hastings, Source: Preface of "A Lodging of Wayfaring Men" by Paul A. Rosenberg
Saved by inyucho in politics economy force economics property intellectual political libertarianism libertarian copyright ip

That war, so bitter, so intense, has never ceas...

That war, so bitter, so intense, has never ceased. It is the war between truth and error, between agency and compulsion, between the followers of Christ and those who have denied Him. His enemies have used every stratagem in that conflict. They�ve indulged in lying and deceit. They�ve employed money and wealth. They�ve tricked the minds of men. They�ve murdered and destroyed and engaged in every kind of evil practice to thwart the work of Christ.
Author: Gordon B. Hinckley, Source: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010Vg...
Saved by cboyack in freedom satan truth agency war christ evil error good force compulsion warinheaven

Know this, that ev'ry soul is free To choose hi...

Know this, that ev'ry soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n:
That God will force no man to heav'n.
Author: Anonymous, Source: Know This, That Every Soul Is Free, Hymn #240
Saved by cboyack in liberty freedom agency heaven force

We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our...

We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our own bread and earn our own clothing, or go without; there was no other choice. We did it then, and we are able to do the same to-day. I want to enlist the sympathies of the ladies among the Latter-day Saints, to see what we can do for ourselves with regard to schooling our children. Do not say you cannot school them, for you can... I understand that the other night there was a school meeting in one of the wards of this city, and a part there--a poor miserable apostate--said, "We want a free school, and we want to have the name of establishing the first free school in Utah." To call a person a poor miserable apostate may seem like a harsh word; but what shall we call a man who talks about free schools and who would have all the people taxed to support them, and yet would take his rifle and threaten to shoot the man who had the collection of the ordinary light taxes levied in this Territory--taxes which are lighter than any levied in any other portion of the country?
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses 16:19-20
Saved by cboyack in socialism education homeschool taxes school charity force poverty robbery

I am opposed to free education as much as I am ...

I am opposed to free education as much as I am opposed to taking property from one man and giving it to another who knows not how to take care of it... I do not believe in allowing my charities to go through the hands of robbers who pocket nine-tenths themselves and give one tenth to the poor... Would I encourage free schools by taxation? No!
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses Vol. 18, p. 357
Saved by cboyack in socialism education taxes school charity force poverty robbery

Force, on the other hand, emanates from Lucifer...

Force, on the other hand, emanates from Lucifer himself. Even in man's pre-existent state, Satan sought power to compel the human family to do his will by suggesting that the free agency of man be inoperative. If his plan had been accepted, human beings would have become mere puppets in the hands of a dictator, and the purpose of man's coming to earth would have been frustrated. Satan's proposed system of government, therefore, was rejected, and the principle of free agency established in its place.
Author: David O. McKay, Source: Conference Report, April 1950, pp. 33-35
Saved by cboyack in government satan agency power force dictator lucifer

Is it not apparent that it is impossible for go...

Is it not apparent that it is impossible for government to "create" rights in one person or group without destroying the rights of another? When it gives special privileges to one it must deny them to someone else. This result is unavoidable because when government creates a "right" in one person, it must at the same time create a "duty" in someone else. A right is without any substance unless there is someone against whom it can be enforced. But the one against whom it is enforced is saddled with a duty he did not formerly owe. The law compels him to do something or refrain from doing something and punishes him if he refuses. But you cannot compel a person against his will, nor can you punish him, without taking from him either his right to life, his right to liberty or his right to property. Thus the law has destroyed his rights in attempting to create "rights" in someone else.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/chapter_13.html
Saved by cboyack in liberty government duty right force privilege

...if government can of its own volition create...

...if government can of its own volition create a right in one person which did not theretofore exist, it must needs have the power to impose a duty on another which theretofore did not exist. But it can enforce such a duty only by compelling the obligor to give up either his life, his liberty or his property, and this it cannot do without depriving him of his unalienable natural rights.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/chapter_3.html
Saved by cboyack in liberty government freedom socialism life duty right force property

If governments are established only to protect ...

If governments are established only to protect rights, they are established only to enforce duties because every right is represented by a duty. Therefore, when government has enforced all the duties of man whether natural or acquired, it has completed the entire purpose for which it is formed and reached the limit of its powers. This is to conclude that government has no power to either create new rights nor impose new duties, but only to protect those rights and enforce those duties which already exist.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/chapter_3.html
Saved by cboyack in politics government god power nature duty right force

The substance of a right consists of the power ...

The substance of a right consists of the power to compel the wrongdoer to make restitution and the substance of a duty consists of being compelled to perform it. Unless the performance of the duty is enforced, the right is without a remedy and the failure to perform the duty without a penalty. It is the enforcement which brings both into existence and gives them substance.
Author: H. Verlan Andersen, Source: http://inspiredconstitution.org/mbfs/chapter_3.html
Saved by cboyack in liberty government duty right law force enforcement

Government implies the power of making laws. It...

Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience. If there be no penalty annexed for disobedience, the resolutions or commands which pretend to be laws will, in fact, amount to nothing more than advice or recommendation.
Author: Alexander Hamilton, Source: Federalist Papers #15
Saved by cboyack in government law crime advice force recommendation penalty punish

Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily...

Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator... This will of his Maker is called the law of nature... This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from thus original... Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. ... nay, if any human law should allow or enjoin us to commit it, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we offend both the natural and the divine.
Author: Sir William Blackstone, Source: Commentaries on the Law of England, Vol. I, pp. 41-43
Saved by cboyack in god power nature humanity law authority force mankind creature