Grass stamped flat soon becomes a path

by Stephan Kinsella on July 7, 2009

The temptation to despair is high for realistic libertarians. It seems ever more difficult to achieve the society we strive for. But here are some inspiring words from Blaga Dimitrova, a Bulgarian poet:

I’m not afraid
they’ll stamp me flat.
Grass stamped flat
soon becomes a path.

—Blaga Dimitrova, “Grass,” quoted in Harold B. Segel, The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003 [1974]), p. 146.

I was made aware of these beautiful lines in “Why We Have Rights,” by Christian Michel, a chapter in the book I co-edited with Guido Hülsmann in 2009, Property, Freedom, and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.