Lysander Spooner

Vices are not crimes.

— Lysander Spooner

No government knows any limits to its power except the endurance of the people.

— Lysander Spooner

Money is the great instrumentality for manufacturing.

— Lysander Spooner

No State shall pass any law impairing the [natural] obligation of contracts.

— Lysander Spooner

There can be no criminal intent in resisting injustice.

— Lysander Spooner

Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.

— Lysander Spooner

The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers.

— Lysander Spooner

Majorities and minorities cannot rightfully be taken at all into account in deciding questions of justice.

— Lysander Spooner

“If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their…

— Lysander Spooner

All governments, the worst on earth, and the most tyrannical on earth, are free governments to that portion of the people who…

— Lysander Spooner

A slave government is an oligarchy; and one, too, of the most arbitrary and criminal character.

— Lysander Spooner

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

— Lysander Spooner

The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not…

— Lysander Spooner

“No man can rightfully be required to join, or support, an association whose protection he does not desire.”

— Lysander Spooner

A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of…

— Lysander Spooner

All these cries of having "abolished slavery," of having "saved the country," of having "preserved the union," of establishing a "government of…

— Lysander Spooner

The desertion of Jesus, by his followers, furnishes an argument in support of the supposition that he attempted to be king of…

— Lysander Spooner

There is perhaps not an enlightened Christian in America who, notwithstanding he may believe that, at the time of Jesus, men were…

— Lysander Spooner

The rescue of a person, who is assaulted, or restrained of his liberty, without authority of law, is not only morally, but…

— Lysander Spooner

It is perfectly clear, in the first place, that the constitution of the United States did not, of itself, create or establish…

— Lysander Spooner

What is the motive to the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are…

— Lysander Spooner

The right of absolute and irresponsible dominion is the right of property, and the right of property is the right of absolute,…

— Lysander Spooner

It cannot be said that the Constitution formed 'the people of the United States,' for all time, into a corporation. It does…

— Lysander Spooner

And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract—the Constitution—made eighty years ago, by men who…

— Lysander Spooner

Our constitutions purport to be established by 'the people,' and, in theory, 'all the people' consent to such government as the constitutions…

— Lysander Spooner

It is with government paper, and bank paper, as it is with the paper of private persons; that is, it is worth…

— Lysander Spooner

No principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently false than this; or more self-evidently fatal to all political…

— Lysander Spooner

And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder…

— Lysander Spooner

“The Constitution certainly supposes that the crime of treason can be committed only by man, as an individual. It would be very…

— Lysander Spooner

The commerce of a free people is many times more valuable than that of slaves. Freemen produce and consume vastly more than…

— Lysander Spooner

No body of men can be said to authorize a man to act as their agent, to the injury of a third…

— Lysander Spooner

Jesus never instructed men to do what was right because it was right; yet this is the true reason why they should…

— Lysander Spooner

The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this - that it is one…

— Lysander Spooner

Our Constitution does not profess to have been established simply by the majority, but by 'the people' - the minority as much…

— Lysander Spooner

The right of revolution, which tyrants, in mockery, accord to mankind, is no legal right under a government; it is only a…

— Lysander Spooner

These so-called governments are in reality only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined, and constantly on the alert.

— Lysander Spooner

Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent…

— Lysander Spooner

The greatest of all crimes are the wars that are carried on by governments, to plunder, enslave, and destroy mankind.

— Lysander Spooner

Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property. Crimes are those acts by which one man harms…

— Lysander Spooner

Slavery, if it can be legalized at all, can be legalized only by positive legislation. Natural law gives it no aid. Custom…

— Lysander Spooner