Albert J. Nock Quotes

Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable.

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.

Government is force, pure and simple. There's no way to sugar-coat that. And because government is force, it will attract the worst elements of society - people who want to use government to avoid having to earn their living and to avoid having to persuade others to accept their ideas voluntarily.

The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good.

All government is intended for the benefit of the people.

… in contriving any system of government and fixing the several checks and controls of the constitution, every man ought to be supposed a knave and to have no other end, in all his actions, than private interest. By this interest we must govern him and, by means of it, make him, notwithstanding his insatiable avarice and ambition, cooperate to public good.

They regard as just whatever they believe to be advantageous.

… a good society ensues from the selfish pursuits of individual men.

Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

The government that is wise will consider what is best for all its people.

Whoever says State necessarily says domination, and, consequently, slavery; a State without slavery, open or concealed, is inconceivable: that is why we are enemies of the State.

Politics is history in the making.

There is nothing government can give you that it hasn't taken from you in the first place.

Freedom for the government is enslavement for the people. When the government is free the people are enslaved. When the government is contained then the people are free.

There is such a thing as society. It's just not the same thing as the state.

The absolute rule of the state shall be a function of the absolute liberty of each individual will.

He that doth public good for multitudes, finds few are truly grateful

If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you.

In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.

Big Government is erecting a panopticon state - one that sees everything, and regulates everything. It’s great “customer service,” except that you can never get out of the store.

The public good is promoted best by people pursuing their own private interests. This bothers some people because they're more concerned with motives than with results.

In our complex world, there cannot be fruitful initiative without government, but unfortunately there can be government without initiative.

You can't go home and look at your plaques at the end of the day, because every politician has like a million plaques on their wall. OK? You don't go home and look at - you don't get anything for that. And you can't go home and say, boy, I really served the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. You want to go home and, you know, Fourth of July, you know, any of these special holidays that recognize our country, you want to feel like you've built a stronger nation, which means you helped build the people and put them in a stronger place where everyone's lifted.