“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these because we have acted rightly; 'these virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions'; we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit: 'the good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life... for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy”
― The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
― The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
“The repeal of laws as a means to roll back the state is not unjustified. For example, there is no coercion against those who would pick our pockets for “free” healthcare or education, rather it is more so an act of self-defense. As such, we are free to use the state’s political apparatus to further a platform against aggression, democracy, and egalitarianism, while supporting property rights.”
― Private Property, Law, and the State
― Private Property, Law, and the State
“The law itself was originally created in order to protect property. However, the law has been falsely attributed to being the reason property exists in the first place. At least, this is what the state would have us believe. The law does not create property rights because these already existed before the law was created. It is this false attribution that allows the state apparatus to conduct its mission of expropriation.”
― Private Property, Law, and the State
― Private Property, Law, and the State
“Men do not live in perfect harmony with each other. Rather, again and again conflicts arise between them. And the source of these conflicts is always the same: the scarcity of goods. I want to do X with a given good G and you want to do simultaneously Y with the very same good. Because it is impossible for you and me to do simultaneously X and Y with G, you and I must clash. If a superabundance of goods existed, i.e., if, for instance, G were available in unlimited supply, our conflict could be avoided. We could both simultaneously do ‘our thing’ with G. But most goods do not exist in superabundance. Ever since mankind left the Garden of Eden, there has been and always will be scarcity all-around us.”
― A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline
― A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline
“Any system of ethics must account for scarcity. If it doesn’t, humanity would perish due to misallocation of finite resources, including one’s own body.”
― Private Property, Law, and the State
― Private Property, Law, and the State
Reformed Pub
— 643 members
— last activity Nov 23, 2024 07:32AM
This is the goodreads group for The Reformed Pub FB Group. This is a great place to share book reco's, book reviews, and to start book discussions. We ...more
Blake’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Blake’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Blake
Lists liked by Blake

















































