• Best of Web
  • Home
  • Classics
  • Blog
  • Radio
  • Heroes
  • Books
  • Quotes
  • Talks
  • News
  • About
Menu

Lawrence W. Reed

  • Best of Web
  • Home
  • Classics
  • Blog
  • Radio
  • Heroes
  • Books
  • Quotes
  • Talks
  • News
  • About
Paine.jpg

Paine on Power-Seekers

September 17, 2018

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions” — American patriot Thomas Paine in “Common Sense (1776).

Read More

← Bastiat on the StatePaterson on America →

Recent “Best of Web”

Featured
Honored by the Left, Wrong on Everything.
Mar 17, 2026
Honored by the Left, Wrong on Everything.
Mar 17, 2026

Paul Ehrlich: Time and again, he predicted doom on the assumption that humanity is a plague on the Earth.

Mar 17, 2026
New York Times Retracts Story Due to Several Accuracies
Mar 16, 2026
New York Times Retracts Story Due to Several Accuracies
Mar 16, 2026

The Babylon Bee reports that at publishing time, sources revealed that The New York Times had already fired one of its lead journalists for inadvertently reporting a true story.

Mar 16, 2026
New Yorkers Report Warmth of Collectivism Feels Strangely Like Crushing Tax Hikes
Feb 19, 2026
New Yorkers Report Warmth of Collectivism Feels Strangely Like Crushing Tax Hikes
Feb 19, 2026
Feb 19, 2026

Recent Quotes

Featured
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Feb 11, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Feb 1, 2025
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023

“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Mar 20, 2023

Recent Blogs

Featured
Why North Carolina is Called "First in Freedom"
Mar 16, 2026
Why North Carolina is Called "First in Freedom"
Mar 16, 2026

From January 1 until July 4, 1776, the world spoke of America as 13 colonies in open rebellion against Great Britain. From July 4 onward, we were called the United States of America.

Mar 16, 2026
The Story Told by Poland and Venezuela
Mar 14, 2026
The Story Told by Poland and Venezuela
Mar 14, 2026

Only socialists can look at Poland and Venezuela and arrive at the wrong conclusion. For everybody else, which system works and which does not is as certain as where the sun rises and where it sets. Spanish version: https://tinyurl.com/yt44u7px.

Mar 14, 2026
Native Americans and the Revolution
Mar 12, 2026
Native Americans and the Revolution
Mar 12, 2026

Most Native Americans were not bystanders as patriots fought British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries.

Mar 12, 2026