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

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

— 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

If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have,…

— Lysander Spooner

To deprive mankind of their natural right and power of creating wealth for themselves, is as great a tyranny as it is…

— Lysander Spooner

And there is no difference, in principle - but only in degree - between political and chattel slavery. The former, no less…

— Lysander Spooner

The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man…

— Lysander Spooner

“...only those who have the will and the power to shoot down their fellow men, are the real rulers in this, as…

— Lysander Spooner

Now it is clear, that if the government can exclude, on account either of their opinions or feelings, any persons thus drawn…

— Lysander Spooner

There is not, in the Constitution, a syllable that implies that persons, born within the territorial limits of the United States, have…

— Lysander Spooner

All, or nearly all, the advantage there is in fixing any constitutional limits to the power of a government, is simply to…

— Lysander Spooner

A man who is without capital, and who, by prohibitions upon banking, is practically forbidden to hire any, is in a condition…

— Lysander Spooner

There has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the…

— 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 fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life...The government does not, indeed,…

— Lysander Spooner

“The Constitution says: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic…

— 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

Any rule, not existing in the nature of things, or that is not permanent, universal and inflexible in its application, is no…

— Lysander Spooner

Vices are usually pleasurable, at least for the time being, and often do not disclose themselves as vices, by their effects, until…

— 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

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

— Lysander Spooner

If two individuals enter into a contract to commit trespass, theft, robbery or murder upon a third, the contract is unlawful and…

— 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

If our fathers, in 1776, had acknowledged the principle that a majority had the right to rule the minority, we should never…

— 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

The laws recognize no obligation on the part of the slave to labor for or serve his master. If he refuse to…

— 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

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

If men were but to read the New Testament with the same tone and emphasis, with which they do other books, and…

— Lysander Spooner

The mental capacity of a person to make reasonable contracts, is the only criterion, by which to determine his legal capacity to…

— 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

Majorities, as such, afford no guarantees for justice. They are men of the same nature as minorities. They have the same passions…

— Lysander Spooner

A man's 'original and natural right' to make all contracts that are 'intrinsically obligatory,' and to coerce the fulfillment of them, is…

— 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

The single despot stands out in the face of all men, and says: I am the State: My will is law: I…

— Lysander Spooner