Best 728 quotes in «libertarian quotes» category

There is no moral distinction between the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax.

There is nothing so bad that politics cannot make it worse.

There is nothing new in state interventionism. It is as old and reactionary as societal organization itself. Always, when it permeates the body politic, it kills the nation.

There's always someone telling you not to do something. The main thing is just to ignore them.

There's a very comfortable techno-libertarian culture where you think you're doing the right thing.

There's never been a good government.

There's no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom.

There's nothing that does so much harm as good intentions.

The state operates in a legal vacuum. There exists no contract between the state and its citizens.

The rights of the individual should be the primary object of all governments.

The same government that brought you urban renewal is likely to make an even worse mess of suburban renewal.

The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.

The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave.

The true remedy for most evils is none other than liberty, unlimited and complete liberty, liberty in every field of human endeavor.

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly takes things as they come. For to do nothing and to be idle are also action, they too determine the course of events.

They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened.

They've been taught by too many that this war was necessary when it isn't.

Those who attack the rationale of the game, and not the players, are its most formidable adversaries.

Thou shall not steal, even by majority vote.

Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

'Tis true that governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fit everyone who enjoys a share of protection should pay out of his estate his proportion of the maintenance of it.

To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled - by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.

To change masters is not to be free.

To demonize state authoritarianism while ignoring identical albeit contract-consecrated subservient arrangements in the large-scale corporations which control the world economy is fetishism at its worst.

Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.

To entrust the government with the power of determining the education which our children receive is entrusting our servant with the power to be our master.

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.

Truth, in its struggles for recognition, passes through four distinct stages. First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly, and will surely disrupt society. Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic and contrary to the Bible. Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance either one way or the other. Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.

Trying to be a socialist and a libertarian is obviously a very difficult balancing act, which nobody has pulled off too successfully in this century.

War is the Health of the State.

War is just one more big government program.

War is organized murder, and nothing else.

We are not punished for our sins, but by them.

We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.

We cannot restore traditional American freedom unless we limit the government's power to tax.

We do many things at the federal level that would be considered dishonest and illegal if done in the private sector.

Well, I'm a libertarian conservative, so I believe in limited government/maximum individual freedom.

We like to imagine that in history, truth will prevail through sheer persuasive power. Sadly, this is not the case. Truth needs champions.

We tried many times before to speed on the social revolution in Spain; attempted to stir up the feelings of the people and to raise the banner of Libertarian Communism.

What...can the government do to help the poor? The only answer is the libertarian answer: Get out of the way.

What I would like to vote for is a candidate that is socially liberal, a fiscal conservative, broadly libertarian with a small l but sensible and pragmatic and with a chance of winning. Thats more or less the empty set.

What is the free market? Well, the free market, [we're told] is really a terrible, inhuman kind of arrangement, because it treats people like commodities. But how does the government treat people? Like garbage-worse than garbage. Not like commodities, but like nothing. We libertarians understand that we are not humane, we are not compassionate. It's the leftists and the liberals, they're the ones who are human and compassionate, but you'd better not get in their way.