In claiming that prohibition, not the drugs themselves, is the problem, Nadelmann and many others - even policemen - have said that "the war on drugs is lost." But to demand a yes or no answer to the question "Is the war against drugs being won?" is like demanding a yes or no answer to the question "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" Never can an unimaginative and fundamentally stupid metaphor have exerted a more baleful effect upon proper thought.

Orders can be benign or malign, but the habit of obeying them can become ingrained.

Equality of Ugliness: If we can't all live in a beautiful place we must all live in an ugly place.

Feeling good about yourself is not the same thing as doing good. Good policy is more important than good feelings.

Life is a biography, not a series of disconnected moments, more or less pleasurable but increasingly tedious and unsatisfying unless one imposes a purposive pattern upon them.

How many people does each of us know who claim to seek happiness but freely choose paths inevitably leading to misery?

A curious reversal in the locus of moral concern has taken place: people feel responsible for everything except for what they do.