“Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and danger that their acts would otherwise involve… But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons to whom it doesn’t belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish that law without delay - No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic.”
― The Law
― The Law
“A man need not assert that he is a man. Only a child would do so.”
― The Shadow of Gods
― The Shadow of Gods
“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”
― The Law
― The Law
“To bring about the end of the world with love and good intent is no better than ending it with fire.”
― A Trial of Souls
― A Trial of Souls
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
― Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
― Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
John Olds’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at John Olds’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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