In this excerpt from The Rights of Man, here Thomas Paine argues that the order naturally observed in human society is not the result of government. Great part of that order which reigns among mankind ...

There is perhaps no writer better at articulating the economic way of thinking and exposing the myths that plague political debate than the Frenchman Frédéric Bastiat. During his short life (1801-1850 ...

Kant discusses his theory of the state, concluding, “Whatever a people cannot impose upon itself cannot be imposed upon it by the legislator either.” Immanuel Kant is considered to be one of the ...

In this essay from What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1911), Sumner denounces social reformers who want to run other people’s lives. William Graham Sumner held a professorship in political economy ...

Emma Goldman discusses the nature of the state as an institution and how it is fundamentally at odds with the dignity of the individual. Emma Goldman was a socialist anarchist activist, writer, and ...

“The Church, indeed, taken as a whole, has been constantly changing—constantly advancing—her history is diversified and progressive.” [Church society] was almost completely organized before the close ...

The Swatantra Party carried the torch of classical liberalism in India in the 1960s and 70s. C. Rajagopalachari was the final Governor- General of India, an associate of Gandhi, and the founder of the ...

“Let us attach ourselves firmly [to] civilization — justice, legality, publicity, Liberty; and let us never forget [that we] are under the eye of the world.” At seven years old, Francois Guizot, who ...

In this excerpt from On Liberty, Mill argues that the right of an individual to her own opinion isn’t only good for her, but for the rest of society. The time, it is to be hoped, is gone by when any ...

When the Roman Empire collapsed, society persisted and new regimes thrived. Europe quickly became a patchwork of new and competing socio- political orders. We, whose duty it is to afford suitable ...

Croce argued that the lifespans of particular regimes, tyrants and oppressors are limited, but history always and inevitably arcs toward Liberty. Benedetto Croce was born in Abruzzi, Italy in 1866 to ...

Hume argues that rules of justice do not spring fully- formed from rational calculation but emerge from the uncoordinated actions of individuals. David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, ...