Like Prince Von Bismarck In Diplomacy, I

There Are Two Methods, Or Means, And Only Two, Whereby Man's Needs And Desires Can Be Satisfied. One Is The Production And Exchange Of Wealth; This Is The Economic Means. The Other Is The Uncompensated Appropriation Of Wealth Produced By Others; This Is The Political Means.

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.

It Is Unfortunately None Too Well Understood That, Just As The State Has No Money Of Its Own, So It Has No Power Of Its Own. All The Power It Has Is What Society Gives It, Plus What It Confiscates From Time To Time On One Pretext Or Another, There Is No Other Source From Which State Power Can Be Drawn. Therefore Every Assumption Of State Power, Whether By Gift Or Seizure Leaves Society With So Much Less Power; There Is Never, Nor Can Be, Any Strengthening Of State Power Without A Corresponding And Roughly Equivalent Depletion Of Social Power.

By Consequence I Hold That No One Ever Did, Or Can Do, Anything For "society."... Comte Invented The Term Altruism As An Antonym For Egoism, And It Found Its Way At Once Into Everyone's Mouth, Although It Is Utterly Devoid Of Meaning, Since It Points To Nothing That Ever Existed In Mankind; This Hybrid Or Rather This Degenerate Form Of Hedonism Served Powerfully To Invest Collectivism's Principles With A Specious Moral Sanction, And Collectivists Naturally Made The Most Of It.

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.