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How does something immoral, when done privately, become moral when it is done collectively? Furthermore, does legality establish morality? Slavery was legal apartheid is legal Stalinist, Nazi, and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality does not justify these crimes. Legality, alone, cannot be the talisman of moral people.

Walter E. Williams

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Walter E. Williams
Age: 84 †
Born: 1936
Born: March 31
Died: 2020
Died: December 1
Columnist
Economist
Journalist
Radio Personality
University Teacher
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Walter Williams
Walter Edward Williams
Done
Crime
Immoral
Purges
Something
Alone
Crimes
Talismans
People
Moral
Establish
Legality
Fact
Legal
Furthermore
Facts
Justify
Privately
Cannot
Clearly
Collectively
Become
Slavery
Apartheid
Stalinist
Doe
Morality
Nazi
Talisman

More quotes by Walter E. Williams

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As American education and intelligence becomes replaced by feelings and emotion, not seeing the forest for the trees has become a major problem.
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I prefer a thief to a Congressman. A thief will take your money and be on his way, but a Congressman will stand there and bore you with the reasons why he took it.
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We should view our government the way we should a friendly, cuddly lion. Just because he's friendly and cuddly shouldn't blind us to the fact that he's still got teeth and claws.
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If our country is to survive and prosper, we must summon the courage to condemn and reject the liberal agenda, and we had better do it soon.
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Reaching into someone else's pocket to assist one's fellow man hardly qualifies as charity.
Walter E. Williams
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The essence of government is force, and most often that force is used to accomplish evil ends.
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Politicians exploit economic illiteracy.
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The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.
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If the States do not have the right to secede, then they have no rights at all.
Walter E. Williams
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However, if we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis. In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help.
Walter E. Williams
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Tyrants always condemn and seek to replace the market process with government coercion because tyrants do not trust that people behaving voluntarily will do what the tyrants think they should do.
Walter E. Williams
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Today's liberals wish to disarm us so they can run their evil and oppressive agenda on us. The fight against crime is just a convenient excuse to further their agenda. I don't know about you, but if you hear that Williams' guns have been taken, you'll know Williams is dead.
Walter E. Williams
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The prospects are dim for a society that makes mascots out of the unproductive and condemns the productive.
Walter E. Williams
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Most Americans, who think Congress has a right to do anything for which they can get a majority vote, ignore the clearly written constitutional restraints on Congress.
Walter E. Williams
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If the Constitution framers would come back today, they would have contempt for most of us.
Walter E. Williams
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Many of the wonderful achievements of the 20th century were the result of the pursuit of profits. Unfortunately, demagoguery has led to profits becoming a dirty word. Nonprofit is seen as more righteous, particularly when people pompously stand before us and declare, 'We're a nonprofit organization.'
Walter E. Williams
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Vote for me. I'll use my office to take another American's money and give it to you.
Walter E. Williams
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Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatens, quacks, and hustlers.
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In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves.
Walter E. Williams
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The founders of our nation feared paper currency because it gave government the means to steal from its citizens.
Walter E. Williams