Lysander Spooner: “The rule assumes, what is true, that natural law is a thing certain in itself; also that it is capable of being learned.”

On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.

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.

They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.