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.

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

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.

Legally speaking, there are no such things as 'public rights,' as distinguished from individual rights. Legally speaking, there is no such creature or thing as 'the public.'

Men lie only in two scenarios. One when they have to hide their new girlfriend from the existing one(s) and second when they have to hide their income from the tax authorities.

People see God every day, they just don't recognize him.

The good writer and the good actor are always searching for what is essential. It is a never-ending task because what is essential is always elusive and, therefore, fascinating.

I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think about nothing else.

The first group started along the strait and narrow path, but they did not take hold of the iron rod that would keep them on the path, and they got lost in the mists of darkness

I rate each album as better than the last one. That's how I see it.

In my role of agent for Miss Hathaway, I would like to say that she does not answer questions relating to this subject.

Everything we have of value as human beings - as a civilization - is the result of our intelligence.

The finer the instrument, the greater the power. The mind is much finer and more powerful than the body.