Fox McCloud
09-20-2008, 11:07 PM
To be honest, I'm no expert on Mark Twain (not by any stretch of the imagination)...but after combing over some of his quotes, it made me wonder if he had Libertarian leanings. Take for example, this quote in regards to the government giving favor to allopathic medicine over homeopathic and hydropathic:
"the mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose that independence of thought and action which is the cause of much or our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and in fine, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise."
I came across some others as well:
"That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do."
"...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more."
There's a few other quotes I've found that all support this notion as well, but ultimately, I cannot say for sure; I've met people that have said such things, then turn around and support Statist measures. Either way, do any of you know more about this subject and if he truly were (or were not) a Libertarian?
"the mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose that independence of thought and action which is the cause of much or our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and in fine, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise."
I came across some others as well:
"That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do."
"...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more."
There's a few other quotes I've found that all support this notion as well, but ultimately, I cannot say for sure; I've met people that have said such things, then turn around and support Statist measures. Either way, do any of you know more about this subject and if he truly were (or were not) a Libertarian?