Murray Rothbard Quotes

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• 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

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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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• The state has typically been a device for producing affluence for a few at the expense of many.

  Murray Rothbard

  Affluence, States, Expenses

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.209, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Thieves, Gang, Individual

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Just as no one is morally required to answer a robber truthfully when he asks if there are any valuables in one’s house, so no one can be morally required to answer truthfully similar questions asked by the State, e.g., when filling out income tax returns.

  Murray Rothbard

  House, Income, Answers

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.183, NYU Press

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• 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

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Expression, Anarchism, Capitalism

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• 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

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• Rule by the statist elite is not benign or simply a matter of who happens to be in office: it is rule by a growing army of leeches and parasites battening off the income and wealth of hard-working Americans, destroying their property, corrupting their customs and institutions, sneering at their religion.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hard Work, Army, Office

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• 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

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• It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus.

  Murray Rothbard

  Exercise, Organization, Government

  Murray N. Rothbard (2004). “Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar's Edition”, p.1302, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Peace, War, Pride

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.196, NYU Press

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• Who wants good people in government? Good people should be in the private sector. Helping us out, helping themselves out in the private sector. We want schmoes in government. We want people who can't find the doorknob. Why waste productive people, as well as looting the taxpayer?

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, People, Want

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