Libertarian Quotes - Page 2

• If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

  Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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• A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

  G. Gordon Liddy

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

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• When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

  Edith Hamilton

  Freedom, Responsibility, Libertarian Party

  Edith Hamilton (1964). “The Ever-Present Past”

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• Government is best which governs least

  Thomas Paine

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

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• The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

  John Locke

  Government, Libertarian Party, People

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• The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Political, Police

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method”

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• Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Special, Liberty

  "The Voice of Reason" by Ayn Rand, 1989.

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• If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves

  Thomas Sowell

  Giving, Voting, Promise

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• War is the Health of the State.

  Randolph Bourne

  War, Liberty, States

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.382, Univ of California Press

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• The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Thinking, Social Taboos

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.145, Vintage

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• Public schools are government-established, politician- and bureaucrat-controlled, fully politicized, taxpayer-supported, authoritarian socialist institutions. In fact, the public-school system is one of the purest examples of socialism existing in America.

  Tom L. Johnson

  School, Government, America

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• No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Size, Bureaucracy

  Television broadcast, 27 Oct. 1964

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

  Winston Churchill

  Blessing, Misery, Socialism

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• In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.

  Walter Lippmann

  Men, Justice, Liberty

  Walter Lippmann (1938). “The good society”, p.267, Transaction Publishers

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• Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

  Mao Zedong

  Military, Gun, Chinese Revolution

  Speech at sixth plenary session of Central Committee, Communist Party, Yan'an, China, 6 Nov. 1938

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• As government expands, liberty contracts.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Political, Liberty

  Farewell Address to the Nation, delivered 11 January 1989, Washington D.C.

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• If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace

  Voltaire

  Cutting, Land, Two

  Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.142, Penguin

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• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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

  Mortimer Adler

  Men, Liberty, Arbitrary

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• Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.238, Cosimo, Inc.

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• There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Thinking, Political

  "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress". Novel by Robert A. Heinlein, 1966.

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• Government does not grow by seizing our freedoms, but by assuming our responsibilities.

  Mike Cloud

  Responsibility, Government, Liberty

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• There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Men, Law, Libertarian Party

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Believe, Men, Libertarian Party

  Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Orlando Williams Wight (1866). “Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising his essays, journey into Italy, and letters”, p.357

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• If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! - and listens to their testimony.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Law, Class

  "No Name in the Street". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1972.

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