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Lysander Spooner Quotes - Page 5

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The trial by jury is a trial by 'the country,' in contradistinction to a trial by the government. The jurors are drawn by lot from the mass of the people, for the very purpose of having all classes of minds and

The trial by jury is a trial by 'the country,' in contradistinction to a trial by the government. The jurors are drawn by lot from the mass of the people, for the very purpose of having all classes of minds and feelings, that prevail among the people at large, represented in the jury.

Lysander Spooner
Country, Government, Class
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Legal writings”

It is with government paper, and bank paper, as it is with the paper of private persons; that is, it is worth just what can be delivered in redemption of it, and no more. We all understand that the notes of the Astors, and Stewarts, and Vanderbilts, though issued by millions, and tens of millions, are really worth their nominal values.

Lysander Spooner
Government, Redemption, Paper
Lysander Spooner (1873). “A New Banking System: the Needful Capital for Rebuilding the Burnt District”, p.18

What is the motive to the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but enemies; and they are afraid to be known, and to have their individual doings known, even to each other.

Lysander Spooner
Secret, Enemy, Use
Lysander Spooner (2013). “No Treason”, p.30, Read Books Ltd

All know the importance of sustaining the hopes of a sick man. The reason of this is that his nervous system is then, vastly more than in health, susceptible to the influence of particular states of the mind.

Lysander Spooner
Men, Sick, Mind
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

There is perhaps not an enlightened Christian in America who, notwithstanding he may believe that, at the time of Jesus, men were possessed of devils, believes that they ever have been in any other instance, either before or since.

Lysander Spooner
Christian, Jesus, Believe
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

All the great establishments, of every kind, now in the hands of a few proprietors, but employing a great number of wage laborers, would be broken up; for few or no persons, who could hire capital and do business for themselves would consent to labour for wages for another.

Lysander Spooner
Hands, Numbers, Broken
Lysander Spooner (1886). “A Letter to Grover Cleveland on His False Inaugural Address, the Usurpation and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People”

The trial by jury might safely be introduced into a despotic government, if the jury were to exercise no right of judging of the law, or the justice of the law.

Lysander Spooner
Exercise, Government, Law
Lysander Spooner, Charles Shively (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Anti-slavery writings”

Practically and commercially speaking, a dollar is not necessarily a specific thing, made of silver, or gold, or any other single metal, or substance. It is only such a quantum of market value as exists in a given piece of silver or gold.

Lysander Spooner
Gold, Dollars, Substance
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Economic writings”

Doubtless the most miserable of men, under the most oppressive government in the world, if allowed the ballot, would use it, if they could see any chance of thereby ameliorating their condition.

Lysander Spooner
Men, Use, World
Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”

Men's moral principles are weak enough without their being made subordinate to selfishness; and their selfishness is quite active enough, without any such effort as Christianity makes to constitute it the mainspring of all their conduct.

Lysander Spooner
Men, Effort, Selfishness
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

To measure prices by a currency that is called by the same names as gold, but that is really inferior in value to gold, and then - because those prices are nominally higher than gold prices - to say that they are inflated, relatively to gold, is a perfect absurdity.

Lysander Spooner
Names, Perfect, Gold
Lysander Spooner (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Economic writings”

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