| "The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body." |
| The Federalist No. 78. |
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"Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural differences inherent in man--in temperament, character, and capacity --and it respects those differences. We are not alike and no law can make us so." |
| Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) |
| "Liberty is not the means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end." |
| Friedrich von Hayek |
| On Law and Justice: "[T]his negative concept of law is so true that the statement, 'the purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign,' is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that 'the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning.' In fact, it is injustice, instead of justice, that has an existence of its own. Justice is only achieved when injustice is absent. But when the law, by means of its necessary agent, force, imposes upon men a regulation of labor, a method or a subject of education, a religious faith or creed -- then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively upon people...Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice." |
| Frederic Bastiat THE LAW (1850) |