These same institutions produce quite different effects while they are still being fought for; then they really promote freedom in a powerful way. On closer inspection it is war that produces these effects, the war for liberal institutions, which, as a war, permits illiberal instincts to continue. And war educates for freedom. For what is freedom? That one has the will to self-responsibility. That one maintains the distance which separates us. That one becomes more indifferent to difficulties, hardships, privation, even to life itself. That one is prepared to sacrifice human beings for one's cause, not excluding oneself.

We have already gone beyond whatever we have words for. In all talk there is a grain of contempt.

Freedom means that the manly instincts which delight in war and victory dominate over other instincts, for example, over those of 'pleasure.' The human being w…

When one gives up Christian belief one thereby deprives oneself of the right to Christian morality. For the latter is absolutely not self-evident: one must mak…

What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them, and with this as the foremost object ideas of freedom and self-relianc…

If 'freedom' means, first of all, the responsibility of every individual for the rational determination of his own personal, professional and social existence,…

National defense through war always involves some degree of national defeat. This paradox has been with us from the very beginning of our republic. Militarizat…