Nov 16, 2007

Leonard Read's famous essay "I, Pencil"

There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being.  No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work.

Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me.  Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited.  Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson.  Let society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can.  Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow.  Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand.  This faith will be confirmed.

~ Leonard E. Read, founder, Foundation for Economic Education, "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read," The Freeman, December 1958



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