It is easy to prescribe improvement for others; it is easy to organize something, to institutionalize this or that, to pass laws, multiply bureaucratic agencies, form pressure groups, start revolutions, change forms of government, tinker at political theory. The fact… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share
When we speak freely, let us speak plainly, for plain speech is wholesome; especially, plain speech about public affairs and public men. — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
Like all predatory or parasitic institutions, its first instinct is that of self-preservation. All its enterprises are directed first towards preserving its own life,… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
The simple truth is that our businessmen do not want a government that will let business alone. They want a government they can use. — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
Above all things the mass-mind is most bitterly resentful of superiority. It will not tolerate the thought of an elite; and under a political… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
It is certainly true that whatever a man may do or say, the most significant thing about him is what he thinks; and significant… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
Instead of recognizing the State as ‘the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men,’ the run of mankind, with rare exceptions, regards it not only as a final and indispensable entity, but also as, in the main, beneficent. The mass-man, ignorant of its history, regards its character and intentions as social rather than anti-social; and in that faith… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share
There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
Personal publicity of every kind is utterly distasteful to me, and I have made greater efforts to escape it than most people make to… — Albert J. Nock Copy Share Image
