Murray Rothbard Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  131 Copy quote

• 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

  108 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

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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

  119 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

  87 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

  108 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.

  100 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

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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

  85 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

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• 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

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• 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

  32 Copy quote

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

  47 Copy quote

• Money ... is the nerve center of the economic system. If, therefore, the state is able to gain unquestioned control over the unit of all accounts, the state will then be in a position to dominate the entire economic system, and the whole society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Nerves, Able, Gains

  "What Has Government Done to Our Money?". Book by Murray Rothbard, 1980.

  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

  80 Copy quote

• Governmental subsidy systems promote inefficiency in production and efficiency in coercion and subservience, while penalizing efficiency in production and inefficiency in predation.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Subsidies, Coercion

  Murray N. Rothbard (2004). “Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar's Edition”, p.1256, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  27 Copy quote

• This, by the way, is the welfare state in action: Its a whole bunch of special interest groups screwing consumers and taxpayers, and making them think they're really benefiting.

  Murray Rothbard

  Philosophy, Thinking, Political

  "Tariffs, Inflation, Anti-Trust and Cartels". Lecture by Murray Rothbard, 1986.

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• Monetary inflation not only raises prices and destroys the value of the currency unit; it also acts as a giant system of expropriation.

  Murray Rothbard

  Giants, Currency, Raises

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• It would be an instructive exercise for the skeptical reader to try to frame a definition of taxation which does not also include theft. Like the robber, the State demands money at the equivalent of gunpoint; if the taxpayer refuses to pay, his assets are seized by force, and if he should resist such depredation, he will be arrested or shot if he should continue to resist.

  Murray Rothbard

  Exercise, Trying, Doe

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.163, NYU Press

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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

  90 Copy quote

• Minimum wage laws tragically generate unemployment, especially so among the poorest and least skilled or educated workers... Because a minimum wage, of course, does not guarantee any worker's employment; it only prohibits, by force of law, anyone from being hired at the wage which would pay his employer to hire him.

  Murray Rothbard

  Law, Doe, Unemployment

  "For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto".

  29 Copy quote

• 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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• 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

  13 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.

  48 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

  46 Copy quote

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