Walter E. Williams Quotes

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• The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.

  Walter E. Williams

  Government, Vision, Democracy

  100 Copy quote

• But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?

  Walter E. Williams

  Freedom, Justice, Society

  "All it takes is guts". Book by Walter E. Williams, 1987.

  178 Copy quote

• Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place.

  Walter E. Williams

  Creating, Faces, Firsts

  48 Copy quote

• (F)or 50 years, the well-meaning leftist agenda has been able to do to blacks what Jim Crow and harsh discrimination could never have done: family breakdown, illegitimacy and low academic achievement.

  Walter E. Williams

  Years, Achievement, Crow

  126 Copy quote

• Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.

  Walter E. Williams

  Men, People, Fellow Man

  132 Copy quote

• I prefer a thief to a Congressman. A thief will take your money and be on his way, but a Congressman will stand there and bore you with the reasons why he took it.

  Walter E. Williams

  Bores You, Thieves, Way

  60 Copy quote

• Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.

  Walter E. Williams

  Democracy, Liberty, Mob Rule

  112 Copy quote

• In keeping Americans ill-educated, ill-informed and constitutionally ignorant, the education establishment has been the politician's major and most faithful partner. It is in this sense that American education can be deemed a success.

  Walter E. Williams

  Faithful, Ignorant, Liberty

  68 Copy quote

• When the history of the 20th century is finally written, one of its key features will be the wanton slaughter of more than 170 million people, not in war, but by their own government. The governments that led in this slaughter are the former USSR (65 million) and the Peoples Republic of China (35-40 million). The point to remember is that these governments were the idols of America's leftists. Part of the reason for these and other tyrannical successes was because the people were first disarmed.

  Walter E. Williams

  War, Idols, America

  136 Copy quote

• Three-fifths to two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we'd call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that's exactly what thieves do - redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders' vision, it's a sin in the eyes of God.

  Walter E. Williams

  Eye, Two, Government

  "Bogus Right" by Walter E. Williams, econfaculty.gmu.edu. February 8, 2006.

  149 Copy quote

• Here's Williams' roadmap out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits.

  Walter E. Williams

  Jobs, Children, School

  81 Copy quote

• There are people in need of help. Charity is one of the nobler human motivations. The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

  Walter E. Williams

  Motivation, Men, People

  148 Copy quote

• Vote for me. I'll use my office to take another American's money and give it to you.

  Walter E. Williams

  Giving, Office, Liberty

  13 Copy quote

• Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".

  Walter E. Williams

  Powerful, Men, Thinking

  111 Copy quote

• If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.

  Walter E. Williams

  Liberty, Economics, Persons

  Walter E. Williams (2015). “American Contempt for Liberty”, p.284, Hoover Institution Press

  110 Copy quote

• If our country is to survive and prosper, we must summon the courage to condemn and reject the liberal agenda, and we had better do it soon.

  Walter E. Williams

  Country, Liberty, Agendas

  Walter E. Williams (2013). “More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well”, p.179, Hoover Press

  9 Copy quote

• Trying to get government to be as efficient as business is as hopeless as trying to teach cats to bark and dogs to meow.

  Walter E. Williams

  Dog, Cat, Government

  8 Copy quote

• The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.

  Walter E. Williams

  Names, Law, Imagination

  19 Copy quote

• The crucial question for any policy is not what, are its intentions, but what are its effects?

  Walter E. Williams

  Intention, Policy, Crucial

  15 Copy quote

• Philosopher Bertrand Russell suggested that 'Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.' And, it was Albert Einstein who explained, 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' So which is it - stupidity, ignorance or insanity - that explains the behavior of my fellow Americans who call for greater government involvement in our lives?

  Walter E. Williams

  Stupid, Ignorance, Men

  Walter E. Williams (2015). “American Contempt for Liberty”, p.58, Hoover Institution Press

  13 Copy quote

• The difference between a thief and a congressman: When a thief steals your money, he doesn't expect you to thank him.

  Walter E. Williams

  Differences, Thieves, Stealing

  8 Copy quote

• Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatens, quacks, and hustlers.

  Walter E. Williams

  Mean, Government, Important

  22 Copy quote

• Always be suspicious of those who pretend to know it all, claim their way is the best way and are willing to force their way on the rest of us.

  Walter E. Williams

  Way, Know It All, Claims

  68 Copy quote

• Preaching doom and gloom has been beneficial to the political class. They use it to gain more power and control.

  Walter E. Williams

  Doom And Gloom, Class, Political

  Walter E. Williams (2013). “Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays”, p.91, Hoover Press

  17 Copy quote

• More important than anything else is for Americans to wise up to class warfare demagoguery and reject the politics of envy.

  Walter E. Williams

  Wise, Class, Envy

  15 Copy quote

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