Libertarian Quotes - Page 20

• In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Peace, War, Independent

  graf Leo Tolstoy (1904). “Essays, letters, miscellanies”

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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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• Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

  Adam Smith

  Government, Liberty, Citizens

  Adam Smith, James R. Otteson (2004). “Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings”, p.100, Imprint Academic

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• The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Country, Men, Numbers

  Ludwig Von Mises (2008). “Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses”

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• Rather suffer an injustice than commit one.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Suffering, Injustice, Commit

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• Methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim.

  Emma Goldman

  Mean, Method, Aim

  Emma Goldman (2003). “My Disillusionment in Russia”, p.260, Courier Corporation

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• The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Important, Liberty, Economics

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• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

  William J. H. Boetcker

  Money, Income, Trouble

  "The Industrial Decalogue" (1916). These "ten cannots" are frequently, but falsely, attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

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• An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.

  Adlai Stevenson I

  Editors, Liberty, Wheat

  "he Fine Art of Political Wit". Book by Leon Harris, 1964.

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• Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Liberty, Slavery

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• The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of government power.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Freedom, Lying, Government

  Douglas MacArthur (1965). “Duty, Honor, Country: A Pictorial Autobiography”

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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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• A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.

  Spiro T. Agnew

  Men, Liberty, Tiny

  John R. Coyne, Spiro T. Agnew (1972). “The Impudent Snobs: Agnew Vs. the Intellectual Establishment”, New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House

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• Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Liberty, And Love, Individual Morality

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• It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

  James F. Cooper

  Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Memories, Freedom, Political

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• We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.

  Benjamin Harrison

  War, Presidential, Police

  Benjamin Harrison, United States. President (1889-1893 : Harrison) (1969). “Benjamin Harrison, 1833-1901: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

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• Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

  William Penn

  Thinking, Democracies Have, People

  Benjamin Franklin, William Penn (2012). “Franklin's Way to Wealth and Penn's Maxims”, p.51, Courier Corporation

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• Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Hippie, Patriotic

  Bertrand Russell (1962). “Has Man a Future?”

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• This country is a one-party country. Half of it is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians.

  Hugh Downs

  Country, Party, Ideas

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• If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Success, Music, Forgiveness

  Walden ch. 18 (1854). Frequently quoted as "marches to the tune of a different drummer."

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• Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

  Unknown

  Government, Liberty, Mob Rule

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• In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Food, Feet, Slave

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1981). “Grand Inquisitor”, p.8, A&C Black

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• It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Government, Effort, Sloth

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.36, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

  Robert Frost

  Rights, Political, Icy

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