Like Prince Von Bismarck In Diplomacy, I

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 He Is Willing To Put At Its Disposal An Indefinite Credit Of Knavery, Mendacity And Chicane, Upon Which Its Administrators May Draw At Will.

As Might Be Supposed, My Parents Were Quite Poor, But We Somehow Never Seemed To Lack Anything We Needed, And I Never Saw A Trace Of Discontent Or A Failure In Cheerfulness Over Their Lot In Life, As Indeed Over Anything.

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, And, Second, Towards Increasing Its Own Power And Enlarging The Scope Of Its Own Activity. For The Sake Of This It Will, And Regularly Does, Commit Any Crime Which Circumstances Make Expedient.

Organized Christianity Has Always Represented Immortality As A Sort Of Common Heritage; But I Never Could See Why Spiritual Life Should Not Be Conditioned On The Same Terms As All Life, I. E., Correspondence With Environment.

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 Held Itself Above Justice And Common Morality Whenever It Could Advantage Itself By So Doing.