Every State-formation, every assertion of the power of the magistrate, every mechanical means of compelling order and of guaranteeing a safe course of life is therefore always something unnatural; something against which the deeper aspirations of our nature rebel.#
It [the state] is not a natural head, which organically grew from the body of the people, but a mechanical head, which from without has been placed upon the trunk of the nation. . . . A stick placed beside the plant to hold it up, since without it, by reason of its inherent weakness, it would fall to the ground.#
Vice, too, is so contrary to nature, that it cannot but damage it. And therefore departure from God would be no vice, unless in a nature whose property it was to abide with God. So that even the wicked will is a strong proof of the goodness of the nature. But God, as he is the supremely good creator of good natures so he is of evil wills the most just ruler, so that while they make an ill use of good natures, he makes a good use even of evil wills.#
In scripture they are called God’s enemies who oppose his rule, not by nature, but by vice; having no power to hurt him, but only themselves. #
Choice is neither appetite by itself nor deliberation alone, but something composed of these – for just as we say that a living thing is composed of soul and body, yet is neither body by itself nor soul alone, but is both, so it is with choice.#Quoted in Roderick Long, “Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Action” (2001)