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

  110 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

  93 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

  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

  103 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

  95 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

  100 Copy quote

• 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

  23 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

  73 Copy quote

• Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism. Not only are they compatible, but you can't really have one without the other. True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism

  Murray Rothbard

  Expression, Anarchism, Capitalism

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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.

  88 Copy quote

• 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

  17 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

  80 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

  70 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

  82 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

  23 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

  75 Copy quote

• 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

  33 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

  34 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

• I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual. Anarchists oppose the State because it has its very being in such aggression, namely, the expropriation of private property through taxation, the coercive exclusion of other providers of defense service from its territory, and all of the other depredations and coercions that are built upon these twin foci of invasions of individual rights.

  Murray Rothbard

  Rights, Focus, Defense

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

  11 Copy quote

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

  61 Copy quote

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

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

  37 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

  40 Copy quote

• Monetary expansion is a massive scheme of hidden redistribution.

  Murray Rothbard

  Expansion, Schemes, Massive

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• The greatest danger to the State is independent intellectual criticism.

  Murray Rothbard

  Independent, Intellectual, Criticism

  Murray Newton Rothbard (19??). “The Anatomy of the State”, p.25, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  9 Copy quote

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