Murray Rothbard Quotes

Quotes about:

• The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.

  Murray Rothbard

  Race, Enemy, Liberty

  101 Copy quote

• There can be no such thing as 'fairness in taxation.' Taxation is nothing but organized theft, and the concept of a 'fair tax' is therefore every bit as absurd as that of 'fair theft.'

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Taxation, Fairness

  123 Copy quote

• It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Cost, Libertarian

  Murray Rothbard (2009). “Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 8”, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  115 Copy quote

• The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.

  Murray Rothbard

  Men, Gun, Hands

  109 Copy quote

• States have always needed intellectuals to con the public into believing that its rule is wise, good, and inevitable

  Murray Rothbard

  Wise, Believe, States

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.13, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  81 Copy quote

• The State is a gang of thieves writ large - the most immoral, grasping and unscrupulous individuals in any society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Thieves, Gang, Individual

  101 Copy quote

• It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

  Murray Rothbard

  Ignorance, Discipline, People

  "The Speech Pope Francis Should Have Given" by Lawrence W. Reed, fee.org. September 24, 2015.

  96 Copy quote

• We libertarians are not the spokesmen for any ethnic or economic class; we are the spokesmen for all classes, for all of the public; we strive to see all of these groups united, hand-in-hand, in opposition to the plundering and privileged minority that constitutes the rulers of the State.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hands, Class, Groups

  108 Copy quote

• Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as in a state of impermissible ‘anarchy’, why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighbourhood? Each block? Each house? Each person?

  Murray Rothbard

  New York, Block, Government

  Murray N. Rothbard (2004). “Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar's Edition”, p.1051, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  77 Copy quote

• Scratch an egalitarian, and you will inevitably find a statist.

  Murray Rothbard

  Scratches

  9 Copy quote

• Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences.

  Murray Rothbard

  Order, Law, Natural

  80 Copy quote

• What do intellectuals and opinion makers get from big government? An increasing number of cushy jobs in the bureaucracy, or in the government-subsidized sector, staffing the welfare regulatory state, and apologizing for its policies, as well as propagandizing for them among the public. To put it bluntly, intellectuals, theorists, pundits, media elites, etc. get to live a life which they could not attain on the free market, but which they can gain at taxpayer expense.

  Murray Rothbard

  Jobs, Government, Media

  28 Copy quote

• Every man must have freedom, must have the scope to form, test, and act upon his own choices, for any sort of development of his own personality to take place. He must, in short, be free in order that he may be fully human.

  Murray Rothbard

  Men, Order, Choices

  Murray N. Rothbard (2011). “Economic Controversies”, p.601, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  18 Copy quote

• We must, therefore, emphasize that 'we' are not the government; the government is not 'us.' The government does not in any accurate sense 'represent' the majority of the people. But, even if it did, even if 70 percent of the people decided to murder the remaining 30 percent, this would still be murder and would not be voluntary suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority. No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that 'we are all part of one another,' must be permitted to obscure this basic fact.

  Murray Rothbard

  Suicide, Government, People

  87 Copy quote

• All government operation is wasteful, inefficient, and serves the bureaucrat rather than the consumer.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

  42 Copy quote

• Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion.

  Murray Rothbard

  Organization, Use, Coercion

  Murray Newton Rothbard (19??). “The Anatomy of the State”, p.11, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  9 Copy quote

• If you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place.

  Murray Rothbard

  Attitude, Fall, Thinking

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.57, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  25 Copy quote

• Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.

  Murray Rothbard

  Expression, Anarchism, Capitalism

  "Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard". The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal Interview, www.lewrockwell.com. February 25, 1972.

  64 Copy quote

• The natural tendency of government, once in charge of money, is to inflate and to destroy the value of the currency.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Natural, Currency

  18 Copy quote

• You don't need a treaty to have free trade.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

  65 Copy quote

• There is one good thing about Marx: he was not a Keynesian.

  Murray Rothbard

  Philosophy, Political, Liberty

  The Austrian Economics Newsletter Interview, 1990.

  46 Copy quote

• The more the government intervenes to delay the market's adjustment, the longer and more grueling the depression will be, and the more difficult will be the road to complete recovery.

  Murray Rothbard

  Recovery, Government, Delay

  Robert Wenzel, Murray Rothbard (2014). “Austrian School Business Cycle Theory”, p.23, Lulu.com

  46 Copy quote

• The libertarian sees the State as a giant gang of organized criminals, who live off the theft called "taxation" and use the proceeds to kill, enslave, and generally push people around. Therefore, any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves, and should be liberated as quickly as possible. Any person or group who liberates such property, who confiscates or appropriates it from the State, is performing a virtuous act and a signal service to the cause of liberty.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hands, People, Liberty

  87 Copy quote

• It is not the business of the law to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright.

  Murray Rothbard

  Law, Justice, Liberty

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.127, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  44 Copy quote

• I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual.

  Murray Rothbard

  Anarchist, Individual, Possibility

  "Society Without A State". The Libertarian Forum, 1975.

  25 Copy quote

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