Man must be doing something, or fancy that he is doing something, for in him throbs the creative impulse; the mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural, but an abnormal man.

It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.

Social progress makes the well-being of all more and more the business of each.

The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.

Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.

The state, it cannot too often be repeated, does nothing, and can give nothing, which it does not take from somebody.

That alone is wise which is just; that alone is enduring which is right.