It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The State thrives on war - unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed - expands on it, glories in it.
The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.
The State has invariably shown a striking talent for the expansion of its powers beyond any limits that might be imposed upon it.
The state is nothing but an instrument of opression of one class by another - no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
We had a large common domain, already added by the several States for the common benefit of all; purchase and war might make large additions to this common domain; hence the power over existing and future territories, with the stipulation to admit new States, was conferred.
The larger the state, the more callous it becomes... the colder its heart. It is also true that the bigger the corporation, the more callous its heart. But unlike the state, corporations have competition and have no police powers.
Let a durable and firm peace be established and this government be confined rigidly to the few great objects for which it was instituted, leaving the States to contend in generous rivalry to develop, by the arts of peace, their respective resources, and a scene of prosperity and happiness would follow, heretofore unequaled on the globe.
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.