Albert J. Nock Quotes, born October 13, 1870, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, was an American libertarian author, social critic, and educational theorist whose incisive writings challenged collectivism and State power. A key figure in the early 20th-century libertarian movement, he edited The Freeman and authored influential works like Our Enemy, the State (1935) and Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943). His ideas inspired thinkers like William F. Buckley Jr. and Murray Rothbard. These 15 quotes—sourced from his books, essays, and public statements—reflect his sharp insights on liberty, culture, education, and the dangers of centralized power, capturing his commitment to individualism and intellectual integrity.
15 Albert J. Nock Quotes
- “The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests.” (Book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943)
- “There’s only one way to improve society. Present it with a single improved unit: yourself.” (Book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943)
- “The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime… It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “In proportion as you give the State power to do things for you, you give it power to do things to you.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “The simple truth is that our businessmen do not want a government that will let business alone. They want a government they can use.” (Essay, On Doing the Right Thing, 1928)
- “The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment’s thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.” (Book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943)
- “Diligent as one must be in learning, one must be as diligent in forgetting; otherwise the process is one of pedantry, not culture.” (Book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943)
- “The superficial distinctions of Fascism, Bolshevism, Hitlerism, are the concern of journalists and publicists; the serious student sees in them only one root-idea of a complete conversion of social power into State power.” (Essay, The State, 1939)
- “It is easier to seize wealth than to produce it, and as long as the State makes the seizure of wealth a matter of legalized privilege, so long will the squabble for that privilege go on.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “The civilization of a country consists in the quality of life that is lived there, and this quality shows plainest in the things that people choose to talk about when they talk together.” (Essay, The Decline of Conversation, 1931)
- “The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “When a beggar asks us for a quarter, our instinct is to say that the State has already confiscated our quarter for his benefit, and he should go to the State about it.” (Book, Our Enemy, the State, 1935)
- “Learning has always been made much of, but forgetting has always been deprecated; therefore pedantry has pretty well established itself throughout the modern world at the expense of culture.” (Book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943)
Albert J. Nock’s quotes cut through the fog of collectivism with razor-sharp clarity, urging us to champion individual liberty, cultivate true culture, and question the State’s overreach. Which one sparks your drive to think freely? Share it in the comments and keep Nock’s libertarian spirit alive!
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