An abstraction will move a mountain: Nothing can withstand an idea. Isabel Paterson More Quotes by Isabel Paterson More Quotes From Isabel Paterson A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. Isabel Paterson liberty historical education There can be no greater stretch of arbitrary power than is required to seize children from their parents, teach them whatever the authorities decree they shall be taught, and expropriate from the parents the funds to pay for the procedure. Isabel Paterson arbitrary parent children Freedom is dangerous. Possibly crawling on all fours might be safer than standing upright, but we like the view better up there. Isabel Paterson views danger might Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends. Isabel Paterson omission long school People mostly do as they like, and that would be fine if they'd let other people do the same. Isabel Paterson fine would-be people The biggest pests are the people who use altruism as an alibi. What they passionately wish is to make themselves important. Isabel Paterson important wish people Every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later. . . . Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. Isabel Paterson octopus educational political No law can give power to private persons; every law transfers power from private persons to government. Isabel Paterson government law giving Do you think nobody would willingly entrust his children to you or pay you for teaching them? Why do you have to extort your fees and collect your pupils by compulsion? Isabel Paterson teaching children school The power to do things for people is also the power to do things to people. Isabel Paterson people Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends... ...when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object. Isabel Paterson direct-action omission past If you hear some bad collectivistic notions, chances are that they came Isabel Paterson conservative chance may The philanthropist, the politician, and the pimp are inevitably found in alliance because they have the same motives, they seek the same ends, to exist for, through, and by others. Isabel Paterson alliances pimp politician The humanitarian wishes to be a prime mover in the lives of others. He cannot admit either the divine or the natural order, by which men have the power to help themselves. The humanitarian puts himself in the place of God. Isabel Paterson men order thinking Nothing increases the number of jobs so rapidly as labor-saving machinery, because it releases wants theretofore unknown, by permitting leisure. Isabel Paterson saving numbers jobs Now the sole remedy for the abuse of political power is to limit it; but when politics corrupt business, modern reformers invariably demand the enlargement of the political power. Isabel Paterson abuse political business The humanitarian in theory is the terrorist in action. Isabel Paterson humanitarian theory action The military state is the final form to which every planned economy tends rapidly. Isabel Paterson economy finals military The craving for power is in itself a sign of inferior abilities and unfitness for responsibility. Isabel Paterson craving ability responsibility Whoever is fortunate enough to be an American citizen came into the greatest inheritance man has ever enjoyed. He has had the benefit of every heroic and intellectual effort men have made for many thousands of years, realized at last. If Americans should now turn back, submit again to slavery, it would be a betrayal so base the human race might better perish. Isabel Paterson betrayal race men
