Lysander Spooner

Vices are not crimes.

— Lysander Spooner

Money is the great instrumentality for manufacturing.

— Lysander Spooner

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

— Lysander Spooner

There can be no criminal intent in resisting injustice.

— Lysander Spooner

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

— Lysander Spooner

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

— 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

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

— 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

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 security men can have for their political liberty, consists in keeping their money in their own pockets.

— 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

To measure prices by a currency that is called by the same names as gold, but that is really inferior in value…

— Lysander Spooner

Men's moral principles are weak enough without their being made subordinate to selfishness; and their selfishness is quite active enough, without any…

— Lysander Spooner

No court presumes to tell a jury that they are to try a capital case with the same indifference and unconcern as…

— Lysander Spooner

It is manifest that the only security against the tyranny of the government lies in forcible resistance to the execution of the…

— Lysander Spooner

Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people,…

— Lysander Spooner

The principle, on which the war was waged by the North, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to submit…

— Lysander Spooner

If physical power be the fountain of law, then law and force are synonymous terms. Or, perhaps, rather, law would be the…

— Lysander Spooner

Even if the Constitution of the United States had intended to recognize slavery, as a constitutional state institution, such intended recognition would…

— Lysander Spooner

I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was…

— Lysander Spooner

No man can delegate,... any right of arbitrary dominion over a 3rd person; for that would imply a right in the 1st…

— Lysander Spooner

The 'nations,' as they are called, with whom our pretended ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators profess to make treaties, are as much…

— Lysander Spooner

If those persons, who fancy themselves gifted with both the power and the right to define and punish other men's vices, would…

— Lysander Spooner

The Rothschilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are the representatives and agents - men who never think of lending…

— Lysander Spooner

The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has…

— Lysander Spooner

The purpose and effect of [land titles] have been to maintain, in the hands of robber, or slave holding class, a monopoly…

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

— Lysander Spooner

The law does not require a man to cease to be a man, and act without regard to consequences, when he becomes…

— Lysander Spooner

The constitution of the United States declares that "no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts."

— Lysander Spooner

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

— 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

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

— Lysander Spooner

In reality there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relatively to gold. There is such a thing as a…

— Lysander Spooner

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

— 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

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

— Lysander Spooner