Government Quotes by Lysander Spooner

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

— Lysander Spooner

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

— 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

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

— Lysander Spooner

Those who deny the right of a jury to protect an individual in resisting an unjust law of the government, deny him…

— 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

If a jury have not the right to judge between the government and those who disobey its laws, and resist its oppressions,…

— 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

The trial by jury is a trial by 'the country,' in contradistinction to a trial by the government. The jurors are drawn…

— Lysander Spooner

But for their right to judge of the law, and the justice of the law, juries would be no protection to an…

— Lysander Spooner

That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than…

— Lysander Spooner

Taking a man's money without his consent, is also as much robbery, when it is done by millions of men, acting in…

— Lysander Spooner

A government that can at pleasure accuse, shoot, and hang men, as traitors, for the one general offence of refusing to surrender…

— Lysander Spooner

All legitimate government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily agreed upon by the parties to it, for the protection of their rights…

— 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

If it be said that the consent of the strongest party in a nation, is all that is necessary to justify the…

— 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

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

— Lysander Spooner

The strong are always free by virtue of their superior strength. So long as government is a mere contest as to which…

— Lysander Spooner

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two…

— Lysander Spooner

It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and calling themselves a government, can acquire any rights whatever over other…

— 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

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a…

— Lysander Spooner

For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify…

— Lysander Spooner

If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken…

— 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 apology, that is constantly put forth for the injustice of government, viz., that a man must consent to give up some…

— Lysander Spooner

Any number of scoundrels, having money enough to start with, can establish themselves as a 'government'; because, with money, they can hire…

— Lysander Spooner

If the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing…

— Lysander Spooner

The trial by jury might safely be introduced into a despotic government, if the jury were to exercise no right of judging…

— Lysander Spooner

A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed…

— Lysander Spooner

One essential of a free government is that it rest wholly on voluntary support. And one certain proof that a government is…

— Lysander Spooner

Doubtless the most miserable of men, under the most oppressive government in the world, if allowed the ballot, would use it, if…

— Lysander Spooner

A contract for the establishment of government, being nothing but a voluntary contract between individuals for their mutual benefit, differs, in nothing…

— Lysander Spooner

“A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime; whether committed…

— Lysander Spooner

But that the people are stronger than the government, and will resist in extreme cases, our governments would be little or nothing…

— Lysander Spooner

Justice is the object of government, and those who support the government, must be agreed as to the justice to be executed…

— Lysander Spooner