“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”

"N.Y. State of Mind Pt. II"
On Albums, I Am... (1999)

Original short-story, &quot;The Stainless Steel Rat&quot; in Astounding magazine (August 1957) http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/hh/ssrshort.htm <br class="br">The Stainless Steel Rat <br class="br">Context: When the office door opened suddenly I knew the game was up. It had been a money-maker — but it was all over. As the cop walked in I sat back in the chair and put on a happy grin. He had the same sombre expression and heavy foot that they all have — and the same lack of humour. I almost knew to the word what he was going to say before he uttered a syllable.<br>&quot;James Bolivar diGriz I arrest you on the charge—&quot;<br>I was waiting for the word charge, I thought it made a nice touch that way. As he said it I pressed the button that set off the charge of black powder in the ceiling, the crossbeam buckled and the three-ton safe dropped through right on the top of the cop&#x27;s head. He squashed very nicely, thank you. The cloud of plaster dust settled and all I could see of him was one hand, slightly crumpled. It twitched a bit and the index finger pointed at me accusingly. His voice was a little muffled by the safe and sounded a bit annoyed. In fact he repeated himself a bit.<br>&quot;On the charge of illegal entry, theft, forgery—&quot;<br>He ran on like that for quite a while, it was an impressive list but I had heard it all before. I didn&#x27;t let it interfere with my stuffing all the money from the desk drawers into my suitcase. The list ended with a new charge and I would swear on a stack of thousand credit notes that high that there was a hurt tone in his voice.<br>&quot;In addition the charge of assaulting a police robot will be added to your record.&quot;

A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
Context: The several species of government vie with each other in the absurdity of their constitutions, and the oppression which they make their subjects endure. Take them under what form you please, they are in effect but a despotism, and they fall, both in effect and appearance too, after a very short period, into that cruel and detestable species of tyranny; which I rather call it, because we have been educated under another form, than that this is of worse consequences to mankind. For the free governments, for the point of their space, and the moment of their duration, have felt more confusion, and committed more flagrant acts of tyranny, than the most perfect despotic governments which we have ever known. Turn your eye next to the labyrinth of the law, and the iniquity conceived in its intricate recesses. Consider the ravages committed in the bowels of all commonwealths by ambition, by avarice, envy, fraud, open injustice, and pretended friendship; vices which could draw little support from a state of nature, but which blossom and flourish in the rankness of political society. Revolve our whole discourse; add to it all those reflections which your own good understanding shall suggest, and make a strenuous effort beyond the reach of vulgar philosophy, to confess that the cause of artificial society is more defenceless even than that of artificial religion; that it is as derogatory from the honour of the Creator, as subversive of human reason, and productive of infinitely more mischief to the human race.

Wallenberg Lecture (2008)
Context: It is for real that injustice and oppression will not have the last word. There was a time when Hitler looked like he was going to vanquish all of Europe, and where is he now?

address http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12EXIST.HTM to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 22 November 1951 <br class="br">quoted in Time, 3 December 1951 <br class="br">quoted by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, page 44

Source: America the Beautiful (2012), Ch. 13: 'What's Good about America'

The Second Part, Chapter 31, p. 194
Leviathan (1651)

of America
On Harold Macmillan's government policies, to Lord Salisbury (28 December 1957), quoted in John Charmley, Churchill's Grand Alliance (Harcourt Brace, 1995), p. 354.