I, Pencil
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I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read, commonly known as I, Pencil, is an essay by Leonard Read and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman.[1]
"I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (
No Master Mind
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.
— "I, Pencil", 2008 edition
It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I... Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint,
References
- ^ Read, Leonard E. (December 1958). "My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read". The Freeman. 8: 32–37.
- OCLC 271625357.
- ^ Miltimore, Jon; Jacobsen, Peter; Lorenc, Richard N. (30 October 2020). "10 of the Best Moments Ever on 'Free to Choose'". FEE Stories. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-547-53975-1.
- OCLC 271625357.
Further reading
- Glickman, Lawrence B. (2019). Free Enterprise: An American History. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-23825-9.
External links
- I, Pencil, first edition version (1964), provided by Mises Institute
- Free to Choose: Power of the Market – The Pencil, PBS television show episode with Milton Friedman