Murray Rothbard Quotes

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• 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

  98 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

  106 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

  112 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

  117 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.

  91 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

  98 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

  102 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

  76 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

  15 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

  73 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

  76 Copy quote

• Children are prepared for democracy by being led to discuss current events without first learning the systematic subjects (politics, economics, history) which are necessary in order to discuss them. The Mole effect is to substitute slogans and superficial opinion for considered individual thought. And the opinion is that of the lowest common denominator of the group.

  Murray Rothbard

  Children, Educational, Order

  8 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

  83 Copy quote

• The best way to help the poor is to slash taxes and allow savings, investment, and creation of jobs to proceed unhampered.

  Murray Rothbard

  Jobs, Saving, Way

  31 Copy quote

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

  39 Copy quote

• Throughout history governments have been chronically short of revenue. The reason should be clear: unlike you and me, governments do not produce useful goods and services that they can sell on the market; governments, rather than producing and selling services, live parasitically off the market and off society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Like You, Reason

  19 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.

  59 Copy quote

• Falling prices through increased production is a wonderful long-run tendency of untrammeled capitalism.

  Murray Rothbard

  Running, Fall, Long

  15 Copy quote

• Remember that the minimum wage law provides no jobs; it only outlaws them; and outlawed jobs are the inevitable result.

  Murray Rothbard

  Jobs, Law, Minimum Wage

  36 Copy quote

• [Professional politicians] don't mind if price controls cause shortages of health care. In fact, they welcome the prospect, because then they can impose rationing; they can impose priorities, and tell everyone how much of what kind of medical care they can have. And besides, ... there's that deeply satisfying rush of power.

  Murray Rothbard

  Priorities, Political, Mind

  23 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

  42 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

  85 Copy quote

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

  62 Copy quote

• The diversity of mankind is a basic postulate of our knowledge of human beings. But if mankind is diverse and individuated, then how can anyone propose equality as an ideal? Every year, scholars hold Conferences on Equality and call for greater equality, and no one challenges the basic tenet. But what justification can equality find in the nature of man? If each individual is unique, how else can he be made 'equal' to others than by destroying most of what is human in him and reducing human society to the mindless uniformity of the ant heap?

  Murray Rothbard

  Unique, Men, Years

  Murray N. Rothbard (2009). “Man, Economy, and State, Scholar's Edition”, p.1309, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  41 Copy quote

• On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers.

  Murray Rothbard

  Desire, Anarchy, Plunder

  Murray N. Rothbard (2004). “Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar's Edition”, p.1363, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  6 Copy quote

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