Best 728 quotes in «libertarian quotes» category

Subsidies create more of whatever is being subsidized.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 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 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 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.

The Lindsey Graham via foreign policy is going to beat Rand Paul's libertarian view of foreign policy. It will beat Barack Obama's view of foreign policy. It will beat Hillary Clinton's view of foreign policy.

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

The media has created this environment that is okay to say almost anything about somebody who is, you know, right of Jane Fonda. You know, if you are slightly conservative or even libertarian points of view, especially if you are persuasive and charismatic and funny and effective, you will get called the most appalling things.

The Libertarian Party is a shameful party

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

The minimum that most minimalists want leaves in place just the institutions who protect their interests. That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.

The more laws and restrictions there are, The poorer people become. The sharper men's weapons, The more trouble in the land.

The most esteemed journalists are precisely the most servile. For it is by making themselves useful to the powerful that they gain access to the "best" sources.

The myth of the inevitability of economic globalization is based largely on the work of Milton Friedman, and easily the most underreported story of our time is that the current economy proves Friedman flatly wrong.

. . . Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded. . . .

Theories of "natural law" and the "law of nations" are another excellent example of discussions destitute of all exactness. [...] "Natural law" is simply that law of which the person using the phrase approves[....]

... the next revolution ... will be when those who work refuse to support those who don't.