Nozick, Robert

"Each person's right to their own person and talents is fundamental and inviolable."

"Justice demands respect for the choices and autonomy of all individuals."

"The task of political philosophy is to determine the legitimate functions of the state."

"Contracts freely entered form the basis of legitimate political authority."

"Inequality arising from voluntary exchanges reflects justice, not injustice."

"The minimal state is the most expansive state that can be justified."

"Moral philosophy must begin with recognition of individual rights and dignity."

"People's choices about their own lives should not be constrained by patterns others prefer."

"Justice in acquisition depends on whether resources were previously unowned."

"Patterned theories of justice are incompatible with liberty."

"The state has no right to enforce substantive conceptions of the good life."

"Voluntary association, not coercion, should structure social cooperation."

"Rights are side constraints on action, not merely goals to be maximized."

"The existence of self-ownership makes redistribution morally problematic."

"Rectifying past injustices is necessary for a just distribution."

"Individual rights constrain what communities may do, regardless of the collective benefit."

"The minimal state emerges naturally from the operation of individual rights."

"Defending rights often requires limiting the pursuit of other social goods."

"Just holdings depend on how they are acquired and transferred, not their final pattern."

"Moral agency requires the capacity to make choices about one's own life."

"Violations of rights cannot be justified by appeals to social welfare."

"The state's power should be limited to protecting individual rights from violation."

"Each person's life is uniquely theirs; no one else has ultimate authority over it."

"Justice requires respecting the boundaries of individual rights in all circumstances."

"Voluntary transactions need no further justification beyond mutual consent."

"The political philosophy of minimal government reflects respect for human dignity."

"Holding patterned distributions requires continuous interference in people's freedom."

"Rights function as constraints that cannot be overridden for utilitarian reasons."

"Just societies emerge when individuals freely choose to cooperate and exchange."

"The minimal state protects all individuals equally without favoring any vision of the good."