Best 728 quotes in «libertarian quotes» category

The 'private sector' of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and the 'public sector' is, in fact, the coercive sector.

The program of liberalism if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means of production.

The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.

The public firm can nowhere maintain itself in free competition with the private firm; it is possible today only where it has a monopoly that excludes competition. Even that alone is evidence of its lesser economic productivity.

The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.

There are libertarian values which say private property is the overarching value, the sanctity thereof, and there are egalitarians who say health care should be shared and so on. That's fair enough.

There are many farm handouts; but let's call them what they really are: a form of legalized theft. Essentially, a congressman tells his farm constituency, "Vote for me. I'll use my office to take another American's money and give it to you.

There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.

There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.

There cannot be a good tax nor a just one; every tax rests its case on compulsion.

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

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

There's never been a good government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

To change masters is not to be free.

Thou shall not steal, even by majority vote.

'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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

War is the Health of the State.

War is organized murder, and nothing else.

War is just one more big government program.