A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.
Interpretation
True freedom is not just the ability to choose between options, but the absence of coercion.
This quote by Lysander Spooner suggests that the existence of choice does not equate to genuine freedom. A person can be considered a slave if their options are still limited to the authority of a master, regardless of how frequently they are allowed to make that choice. It implies that true autonomy is the absence of oppressive control, rather than simply the act of choosing between different controlling figures.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, one might cite this quote to illustrate the illusion of freedom in oppressive systems.
The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that-however bloody-can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.
For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth.
And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.
A married woman has the same natural right to acquire and hold property, and to make all contracts that she is mentally competent to make reasonably, as has a married man, or any other man.
Slavery, if it can be legalized at all, can be legalized only by positive legislation. Natural law gives it no aid. Custom imparts to it no legal sanction.
Those who deny the right of a jury to protect an individual in resisting an unjust law of the government, deny him all defence whatsoever against oppression.
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable.
The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
I don't think I had even begun to have an idea where I was going, but wherever it was, that was where I wanted to go.
One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud.
Every living creature is the son of the supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even ants being killed
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