Best 728 quotes in «libertarian quotes» category

Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark.

Private property ... is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, or as payment for a just Debt.

Profit is a signal that valuable services are being rendered to people on a voluntary basis.

Rand`s [Paul] a libertarian. He has a view of the world that I don`t share. He said that we shouldn`t have any troops in Iraq. He agreed with Obama that was a disaster. When there was a chance to do something constructive about Syria with a no-fly zone, he said we don`t need one.

Religions do make claims about the universe--the same kinds of claims that scientists make, except they're usually false.

Remember, to them it is us who are the enemy.

Republicans ought to propose conservative answers to the concerns that are uppermost on most voters’ minds. The libertarian-populist method seems to be to start with the solutions and then to imagine that voters have the relevant concerns. And while many of the proposed solutions have great potential appeal to conservative voters, few would do much to expand their ranks.

Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.

Terrorism is a direct response to the crimes our government has committed against foreigners (besides which, the actual terrorists are within our own government)

Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women - two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians - have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron.

Small government is beautiful

Science, incidentally, not only ignores the question of indwelling 'essences' by looking instead at measurable relationships, but science also does not agree that knowledge is obtained through Rothbard's Medieval 'investigation by a reason,' i.e., by inventing definitions and then deducing what your definitions implicitly assumed.

Some libertarians succeed by re-inventing the wheel. Most libertarians fail by re-inventing the flat tire.

Subsidies create more of whatever is being subsidized.

Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.

The American experiment has come and gone. Whatever freedoms the people still might have as their own, are monitored and registered and taxed at virtually every turn.

That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.

The American people are becoming more and more afraid of, and are running away from, their own revolution.

The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom...

The average family pays more in taxes than it spends on food, clothing, and shelter combined.

The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.

The broad liberal objective is a balanced and flexible "mixed economy," thus seeking to occupy that middle ground between capitalism and socialism whose viability has so long been denied by both capitalists and socialists.

The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

The Constitution poses no threat to our current form of government.

The debate in the Republican Party needs to be between libertarians and conservatives.

The cure for evil and disorder is more liberty, not suppression.

The degree of a country's freedom is the degree of its prosperity.

The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.

The desire of businessmen for profits is what drives prices down unless forcibly prevented from engaging in price competition, usually by governmental activity.

The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism.

The era of big government is over.

The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

The fact throughout history is that whenever government dominates the economic affairs of its citizenry, a free society is eroded, then destroyed, and a minority government ensues. Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; the one cannot exist without the other.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

The freedom to speak is meaningless without the corollary freedom to keep silent.

The Free Market is Mother Nature's way of organizing economic activity.

The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State.

The libertarian must never advocate or prefer a gradual, as opposed to an immediate and rapid, approach to his goal. For by doing so, he undercuts the overriding importance of his own goals and principles. And if he himself values his own goals so lightly, how highly will others value them.

The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop.

The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets.

The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

The laissez-faire argument relies on the same tacit appeal to perfection as does communism.

The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag.