The desertion of Jesus, by his followers, furnishes an argument in support of the supposition that he attempted to be king of the Jews, rather than that he was a superior being.

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.

Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property. Crimes are those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another.

Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.

Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given.

These so-called governments are in reality only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined, and constantly on the alert.

Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property.

No government knows any limits to its power except the endurance of the people.

To say that majorities, as such, have a right to rule minorities, is equivalent to saying that minorities have, and ought to have, no rights, except such as majorities please to allow them.

A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters.

No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.

No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.

[The natural life] knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid that.

Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.

I'm from a little town called Settle in North Yorkshire, so it's amazing that I get to travel everyday and I get to see such crazy sh*t everyday.

Directing is much more psychological-it's a lot like being a general. And you have to be organized. While you're making a film, you have between two and 500 people asking you a billion questions.

I can't think of anything I would do differently in my life. It would be nice to undo some of my mistakes I made over the years, but then I wouldn't have grown professionally or personally.

I would hope that wherever Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, and Fiona get played is where I'd be played. And right now that seems to be the modern Adult Contemporary market.

When I get sick, I go to my doctor like everyone else. A doctor has powerful tools that may help me. Or those tools may hurt me, make me worse. I have to decide. It's my life. It's my responsibility.

Aren't you an enigma wrapped in a thick coating of contradictions.