Carroll Quigley Quotes

Government is force.

About 10,000 years ago, the winners of wars began incorporating the losers into larger societies. The victors found that the only way to make these larger societies work was by developing stronger governments; and one of the first things these governments had to do, if they wanted to stay in power, was suppress violence among their subjects.

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

To make a State appear necessary, any would-be State must first destroy the natural order and create a Hobbesian "anarchy" characterized by looting and vandalizing.

The state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing the resistance of its class enemies.

The state is not a supernatural being; it is the organised host of politicians, leaders and officials backed by armed force

Extensive and organized power over large populations does not suffice to make a nation

There is no force greater than the state force.

The practice of a ruling power in the State is but a feeble proof of its legality.

Whether the state be Marxist or capitalist, it makes no difference. The dominant ideology is that of sovereignty.

The ordered organization of coercion we call the State.

We still give the nation state the monopoly on the legal use of violence in our own defense.

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

It is not systematic education which somehow molds society, but, on the contrary, society which, according to its particular structure, shapes education in relation to the ends and interests of those who control the power in that society.

But you will understand by yourselves that the matter applies equally well to the organization of the officials of justice, of administrative officials, etc; these are likewise organized instruments of power in certain societies.

When mankind first saw the necessity of government, it is probable that many had conceived the desire of ruling.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.

All governments, without exception, are stable only insofar as they can effectively reward and punish.

Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, masses about central powerhouses. The conflict is no longer between the men, but between the motors that drive men [i.e. governments], and the men who succumb to their own motive forces.

The State or the States.

I wouldn't say the nation-state is dead, but the Sovereignty has been greatly circumscribed ... even for a country as large as the U. S.

Government power, juxtaposed to private power, is a balance.

Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.