Albert J. Nock

The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#me #moment #question #right #seemed

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#confiscation #conquest #had #history #invariably

The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#digests #how #into #like #mind

As far as I know, I have no pride of opinion. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#far #i #know #opinion #pride

Concerning culture as a process, one would say that it means learning a great many things and then forgetting them; and the forgetting is as necessary as the learning. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#culture #forgetting #great #learning #many

Considered now as a possession, one may define culture as the residuum of a large body of useless knowledge that has been well and truly forgotten. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#body #considered #culture #define #forgotten

Diligent as one must be in learning, one must be as diligent in forgetting; otherwise the process is one of pedantry, not culture. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#diligent #forgetting #learning #must #otherwise

It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#money #none #own #power #state

Learning has always been made much of, but forgetting has always been deprecated; therefore pedantry has pretty well established itself throughout the modern world at the expense of culture. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#been #culture #established #expense #forgetting

Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets. ↗

— Albert J. Nock

#i #like #prince #secrets #von