Best 728 quotes in «libertarian quotes» category

Economics is sometimes associated with the study and defense of selfishness and material inequality, but it has an egalitarian and civil libertarian core that should be celebrated.

Economist Frederick Thayer has studied the history of our balanced-budget crusades and has come up with some depressing statistics. We have had six major depressions in our history (1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929); all six of them followed sustained periods of reducing the national debt. We have had almost chronic deficits since the 1930s, and there has been no depression since then - the longest crash-free period in our history.

Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression.

Even those who identify themselves as libertarians follow an overtly anti-rationalist philosophy, as even a brief acquaintance with the work of Friedrich Hayek should make clear. The argument against reason in this literature is straightforward: it is impossible for any individual to acquire enough reliable information to make a rational decision, any actions founded on rational thought will therefore be delusional, any attempts at reason should therefore regarded as dangerous, and all action should instead be guided by tradition.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles.

For every new mouth to feed, there are two hands to produce.

Fascism isn't a libertarian doctrine! It just isn't, never will be and it can't be cast as one.

Formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews.

Form 1040 was chosen by the IRS because for every $50 you earn, you get 10 and they get 40.

For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.

Government is not the solution, but rather the cause of our problems.

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

For the totalitarian mind, adherence to state propaganda does not suffice: one must display proper enthusiasm while marching in the parade.

Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.

Government has a monopoly on the legal use of force and violence.

Government, in it's last analysis, is organized force.

Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.

Government should stay the hell out of people's business.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Gun bans don't disarm criminals, gun bans attract them.

Gravity. It's not just a good idea; it's the law!

Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly "reforming" their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact that they're always busy "reforming" is an implicit admission that they didn't get it right the first 50 times.

He who controls the past controls the future.

History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents.... A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.

Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control.

Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.

I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.

How to obtain freedom has been, and is, mankind's most important quest.

I am a limited-government libertarian.

However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.

I am a Libertarian Republican in the Goldwater style.

I am so old that I can remember when liberals were liberal - instead of being intolerant of anything and anybody that is not politically correct.

I am perfectly happy to compromise and work with anybody. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians. I’ll work with Martians. If — and the if is critical — they're willing to cut spending and reduce the debt.

I believe in libertarian options because they allow an interesting management of the capital and are based on co-operation, reciprocity, contract, federation.

I believe in a libertarian communist society.

I became very much, if I have to describe myself, I'm sort of a Libertarian Capitalist, and I was looking for, what's the economic engine that's going to drive us into space?

I certainly have some very strong libertarian leanings, yes.

I brag on the Democratic Party. We're libertarian on social issues, it's live and let live. Fiscally, we're conservative and responsible, and were environmentally conscious.

I can spend your money better than you can.

I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.

I come to the table from a conservative or libertarian point of view, and I admit that. I'm a commentator. I'm not a journalist or anything else.

I do have an intense respect for pacifists, because I believe that ultimately, if we are to have a truly humanistic as well as libertarian society, violence will have to be banished on this planet.

I don't agree with the libertarians. I want my security first. I'll deal with all the details after that.

I don't know that the Libertarian Party has an official position on the separation of church and state.

If a donkey bray at you, don't bray at him.

I expect to see trade wars, foreign policy disasters, a few race riots, a decrease in personal liberty, higher taxes, higher inflation and probably, economic collapse. The silver lining is, secession will probably become more feasible.

I don't speak for all Libertarians any more than Sean Penn speaks for all Democrats.

I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.