“When a statute attacks an individual right, the State must never let it sleep. When it attacks the right of the public at large and is allowed to pass into a state of slumber, it cannot be raised for the purpose of punishing an individual.”
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
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Robert G. Ingersoll 439
Union United States Army officer 1833–1899Related quotes

Spencer interview with Dinesh D'Souza for the documentary Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?

1920s, The Reign of Law (1925)

Source: The Political Doctrine of Fascism (1925), p. 112

Speech to the Oxford Carlton Club (3 March 1922), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour, 1920-1924: The Beginnings of Modern British Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 147.
1920s

"Proclamation to the people of Louisiana" from Mobile (21 September 1814).
1810s

“Taxation is Robbery,” Chicago: Human Events Associates (1947)

Chap.II: The Rise Of The Historic Level
The Revolt of the Masses (1929)
Context: To-day the [Enlightenment] ideal has been changed into a reality; not only in legislation, which is the mere framework of public life, but in the heart of every individual, whatever his ideas may be, and even if he be a reactionary in his ideas, that is to say, even when he attacks and castigates institutions by which those rights are sanctioned.… The sovereignty of the unqualified individual, of the human being as such, generically, has now passed from being a juridical idea or ideal to be a psychological state inherent in the average man. And note this, that when what was before an ideal becomes a component part of reality, it inevitably ceases to be an ideal. The prestige and the magic that are attributes of the ideal are volatilised.