I have never been able to accept any discipline except that which I impose upon myself — and there was a time when I use to impose it often. For, in the art of living, as in that of loving, or of governing — it is all the same. I found it unacceptable that others should claim to know better than I what was good for me.
Most of todays problems are not solved by experience. The further we advance into the modern age, the less important experience will become. It’s much more important to have the necessary adaptability with which to face and solve new problems
The first visible effect of freedom is change. A free man exercises his freedom by altering himself and — inevitably — his surroundings.
Life is confrontation, and vigilance, and a fierce struggle against any threat of intrusion or death. We are unworthy of our ideal if we are not ready to defend, as we would life itself, the only roads to change that respect the human person.
Don’t drop out, drop in. Don’t cop out, complete. Don’t exit, excel!
The oldest problem of political philosophy, although it is not the only, is to justify authority without destroying the independence of human beings in the process
The only constant factor to be found in my thinking over the years has been opposition to accepted opinion. Had I applied this principle to the stock market, I might have made a fortune. I chose to apply it to politics and it led me to power—a result I had not really desired, or even expected.