They apparently cannot conceive of such a thing as a people's establishing a government as a means of preserving their personal liberty and rights.
Lysander Spooner: “They apparently cannot conceive of such a thing as a people's establishing a government as a means of preserving their…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote reflects Spooner's belief that people fail to recognize their power in establishing government for liberty.
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They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
For all these reasons, they are not only modest and sensible, but really frank, honest, and honorable villains, contrasted with these courts of injustice, and the lawmakers by whom these courts are established.
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…