It Is Not True That The Legislator

Thus, If There Exists A Law Which Sanctions Slavery Or Monopoly, Oppression Or Robbery, In Any Form Whatever, It Must Not Even Be Mentioned. For How Can It Be Mentioned Without Damaging The Respect Which It Inspires? Still Further, Morality And Political Economy Must Be Taught From The Point Of View Of This Law; From The Supposition That It Must Be A Just Law Merely Because It Is A Law. Another Effect Of This Tragic Perversion Of The Law Is That It Gives An Exaggerated Importance To Political Passions And Conflicts, And To Politics In General.

All You Have To Do, Is To See Whether The Law Takes From Some What Belongs To Them In Order To Give It To Others To Whom It Does Not Belong. We Must See Whether The Law Performs, For The Profit Of One Citizen And To The Detriment Of Others, An Act Which That Citizen Could Not Perform Himself Without Being Guilty Of A Crime. Repeal Such A Law Without Delay. ... [i]f You Don't Take Care, What Begins By Being An Exception Tends To Become General, To Multiply Itself, And To Develop Into A Veritable System.

You Compare The Nation To A Parched Piece Of Land And The Tax To A Life-giving Rain. So Be It. But You Should Also Ask Yourself Where This Rain Comes From, And Whether It Is Not Precisely The Tax That Draws The Moisture From The Soil And Dries It Up. You Should Also Ask Yourself Further Whether The Soil Receives More Of This Precious Water From The Rain Than It Loses By The Evaporation?

I Find It Hard To Understand Why Those Who Demand Unitary Education By The State Do Not Also Demand A Unitary Press By The State... Either The State Is Infallible, In Which Case We Could Not Do Better Than To Submit To It The Entire Domain Of Intelligent Thought, Or It Is Not, In Which Case It Is No More Rational To Hand Over Education To It Than The Press.

In Fact, If Law Were Restricted To Protecting All Persons, All Liberties, And All Properties; If Law Were Nothing More Than The Organized Combination Of The Individual's Right To Self-defense; If Law Were The Obstacle, The Check, The Punisher Of All Oppression And Plunder - Is It Likely That We Citizens Would Then Argue Much About The Extent Of The Franchise?