The nation which once held the creed that greatness is achieved by production, is now told that it is achieved by squalor.

To interpose the threat of physical destruction between a man and his perception of reality, is to negate and paralyze his means of survival to force him to act against his own judgment, is like forcing him to act against his own sight

I could die for you. But I couldn't, and wouldn't, live for you.

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own basic principles. Every word, every action, every moment counts. (This is the pattern on which everybody makes mistakes [or] becomes irrational — not relating their one action or one conviction to another.

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.

Professional intellectuals are the voice of a culture and are, therefore, its leaders, its integrators and its bodyguards.