Nat Hentoff Quotes

My contact with [Cato] was strange. They're ideologues, like Trotskyites. All questions must be seen and solved within the true faith of libertarianism, the idea of minimal government. And like Trotskyites, the guys from Cato can talk you to death.

— Nat Hentoff

“Means and ends are central. If your means are corroded, your ends will be corroded. And if you're fighting to preserve liberty and you use means that eviscerate our liberties, the end will be corroded, too.”

— Nat Hentoff

“I think Obama is possibly the most dangerous and destructive president we have ever had”

— Nat Hentoff

Americans have only the dimmest notion of what their constitutional freedoms are - and what it took to get them ... [and] the willingness to surrender what we're supposed to be fighting for is a recurring part of our history.

— Nat Hentoff

“There is a seamless web to life.. all life is sacred..”

— Nat Hentoff

“Martin Williams persistently gets at essences, and that is why he has contributed so much to the very small body of authentic jazz criticism.”

— Nat Hentoff

The ACLU sees the separation of church and state as so absolute that not a single religious word must be allowed to pass a schoolhouse door.

— Nat Hentoff

“Those who created this country chose freedom. With all of its dangers. And do you know the riskiest part of that choice they made? They actually believed that we could be trusted to make up our own minds in the whirl of differing ideas. That we could be trusted to remain free, even when there were very, very seductive voices - taking advantage of our freedom of speech - who were trying to turn this country into the kind of place where the government could tell you what you can and cannot do.”

— Nat Hentoff

“Why has slamming a ball with a racquet become so obsessive a pleasure for so many of us? It seems clear to me that a primary attraction of the sport is the opportunity it gives to release aggression physically without being arrested for felonious assault.”

— Nat Hentoff

“Fortune ought to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.”

— Nat Hentoff

I would bet there is no place in the United States where the First Amendment would survive intact.

— Nat Hentoff