Nozick, Robert

"The night-watchman state respects individual rights while maintaining minimal order."

"Voluntary arrangements between consenting adults are inherently more just than imposed distributions."

"Justice requires looking backward to how things were acquired, not merely at current patterns."

"A person's holdings are just if they were justly acquired and justly transferred."

"Morality consists of constraints on how we may treat others, not goals we must achieve."

"The state lacks legitimate authority beyond protecting individuals from rights violations."

"Persons are unique loci of moral value; each is an end in themselves."

"Market exchanges can be morally superior to government redistribution even when outcomes are unequal."

"Subjective rights-holding cannot be violated merely because consequences would be better."

"The question is not what distribution is just, but what process respects rights."

"Charity is admirable but cannot be demanded as a matter of justice."

"Ownership rights include the right to exclude others from what one owns."

"Inviolability of persons provides an absolute side constraint on action."

"Just transfers preserve the justice of holdings through voluntary exchange and gift."

"The state is not morally obligated to maximize social welfare or minimize inequality."

"Respecting autonomy means allowing people to determine their own life projects."

"Forced labor violates rights just as taxation of labor does."

"A just society need not satisfy any particular pattern of distribution."

"The right to self-determination is more fundamental than utilitarian considerations."

"Moral arguments based solely on consequences ignore the separateness of persons."

"Justice requires respecting how people actually came to hold their possessions."

"Rights provide protections that cannot be overridden by aggregate social benefit."

"The state exceeds its authority when it aims at distributive justice beyond rectification."

"Individuals pursuing self-interest in free markets generate beneficial social outcomes."

"Moral philosophy must account for why individuals matter as separate beings."

"Acquisition is just when it leaves others no worse off than they were."

"Violating rights for good consequences treats people as means rather than ends."

"The minimal state arises naturally from moral principles respecting individual rights."

"Voluntary cooperation between equals is superior to imposed distribution by authority."

"Each person is sovereign over their own life and talents."