Libertarian Quotes - Page 15

• And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works

  Frederic Bastiat

  Should Have, Trying, Liberty

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• We have been living amidst one of the great revolutions of human history, and we hardly know it: the penetration of the State into every aspect of human life and society. Some people regard this as good and "progressive," others regard it as tyrannical; but either way, it's a fact, a transformation as great as, say, the Industrial Revolution. Absolutely nothing is now beyond the scope of State power.

  Joseph Sobran

  People, Liberty, Facts

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• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

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• War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Mean, Independent

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.7, Princeton University Press

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• Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, War, Army

  "Political Observations" by James Madison, founders.archives.gov. April 20, 1795.

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• The illegal drug trade is the financial engine that fuels many terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama bin Laden.

  Dennis Hastert

  Organization, Drug, Liberty

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• Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?"

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Race, Ignorant

  Thomas Paine (1995). “Thomas Paine: Collected Writings: Common Sense / The American Crisis / Rights of: (Library of America #76)”, p.595, Library of America

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• The good governor should have a broken leg and keep at home.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Home, Should Have, Broken

  Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (2006). “Don Quixote: Easyread Large Edition”, p.578, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Popular suffrage is in itself no guarantee of freedom. People can vote themselves into slavery.

  Frank Chodorov

  People, Liberty, Guarantees

  Frank Chodorov (2007). “Income Tax: Root of All Evil”, p.88, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• The laws of economics tell us that the expansion of the central state can't go on forever. Its limit is reached when the looted turn on the looters. And that's beginning to happen. More than six decades of hard work for American liberty beginning with the Old Right opposition to the Roosevelt Revolution and continuing with the Mises Institute, is beginning to bear fruit.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Hard Work, Law, Forever

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• There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and vigorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.

  Winston Churchill

  Men, Justice, Liberty

  Sir Winston Churchill (1954). “Sir Winston Churchill: a self-portrait”

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• Going to war accelerated the move from indirect to direct rule. Almost any state that makes war finds that it cannot pay for the effort from its accumulated reserves and current revenues. Almost all war-making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat - including men - from reluctant citizens who have other uses for their resources.

  Charles Tilly

  War, Moving, Mean

  Charles Tilly, Arthur L. Stinchcombe (1997). “Roads from Past to Future”, p.149, Rowman & Littlefield

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• They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  War, Liberty, Vietnam

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• The fact throughout history is that whenever government dominates the economic affairs of its citizenry, a free society is eroded, then destroyed, and a minority government ensues. Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; the one cannot exist without the other.

  William E. Simon

  Government, Liberty, Minorities

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• Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Positive, Carpe Diem, Fruit

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• When you think of the good old days, think one word: dentistry.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Thinking, Liberty, Dentistry

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• Can you think of a single area of government in which George Bush hasn't already made things worse than Bill Clinton did?

  Harry Browne

  Thinking, Government, Liberty

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• When politicians say "I'm in politics," it may or may not be possible to trust them, but when they say, "I'm in public service," you know you should flee.

  Albert J. Nock

  Liberty, May, Politician

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• At the day of judgment we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Liberty, Done, Judgment

  Thomas (à Kempis), Thomas A. Kempis, Aloysius Croft, Harold Bolton (2003). “The Imitation of Christ”, p.4, Courier Corporation

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• As you may have heard, the U.S. is putting together a constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? Think about it - it was written by very smart people, it's served us well for over two hundred years, and besides, we're not using it anymore.

  Jay Leno

  Smart, Thinking, Two

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• Private enterprise creates; government destroys. That is the great economic lesson of our times and all times.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Government, Liberty, Lessons

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• When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government.

  Grover Cleveland

  Patriotic, Government, People

  Second Annual Message, December 1886.

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• Whoever prefers life to death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without compromise private ownership in the means of production.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Mean, Suffering, Liberty

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• He who regulates everything by laws, is more likely to arouse vices than reform them.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Law, Liberty, Vices

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• The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency.

  Eugene McCarthy

  Liberty, Politics, Bureaucracy

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