Libertarian Quotes - Page 24

• In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Art, Liberty, Citizens

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.299, Rowman & Littlefield

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.

  Thomas Sowell

  Games, People, Giving

  69 Copy quote

• If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the quality of child care more than by lifting the heavy burden of taxation that forces so many families to have both parents working.

  Thomas Sowell

  Children, Day Care, Parent

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Controversial Essays”, p.319, Hoover Press

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense of love and duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else's parents out of compulsion and fear. The voluntary transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken those bonds.

  Milton Friedman

  Support, Parent, Liberty

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Men, Liberty, Left Alone

  46 Copy quote

• Do not consider Collectivists as "sincere but deluded idealists". The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not "idealistic," no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Stupidity, Lust

  11 Copy quote

• The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Liberty, Selfishness, Economics

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.325, Penguin

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly "reforming" their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact that they're always busy "reforming" is an implicit admission that they didn't get it right the first 50 times.

  Lawrence Reed

  Liberty, Welfare Reform, Care

  26 Copy quote

• When democratic governments create economic calamity, free markets get the blame.

  Jack Kemp

  Government, Liberty, Blame

  9 Copy quote

• Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

  John Dryden

  Mind, Liberty, Kind

  John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.230

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we're not vigilant.

  Clint Eastwood

  Country, Power, Guy

  17 Copy quote

• To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.

  Claude Adrien Helvetius

  Book, Reading, Liberty

  "A Treatise on Man: His Intellectual Faculties & His Education", Vol. I by Claude Adrien Helvetius, translated by W. Hooper, 1777.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• At the heart of that western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man...is the touchstone of value, and all society, all groups, and states, exist for that person's benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and the abiding practice of any western society.

  Robert Kennedy

  Heart, Men, Practice

  Robert F. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Address at the University of Capetown, South Africa, www.mtholyoke.edu. June 6, 1966.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.

  P.D. Ouspensky

  Country, Law, Numbers

  "A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art". Book by P.D. Ouspensky, 1931.

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

  Clarence Thomas

  Respect, Government, Law

  Concurring in Adarand v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 1995.

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for the crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have.

  Harry S. Truman

  Country, Men, Liberty

  Harry S. Truman (2014). “1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope”, p.345, New Word City

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• A vote is "wasted" when someone fails to vote their conscience.

  Jesse Ventura

  Liberty, Vote, Failing

  29 Copy quote

• Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.

  Will Rogers

  Men, Socialism, Reverse

  28 Copy quote

• Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Albert Einstein (1949). “The World as I See it”, Citadel Press

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, War, Patriotic

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

  99 Copy quote

  Show source

• The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Yield

  Thomas Jefferson (2015). “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, p.5, Lulu.com

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Witty, Funny Inspirational, Government

  P J O'Rourke (1992). “Parliament of Whores-Open Mark”, Vintage Books USA

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.

  Tacitus

  Peace, Freedom, War

  "Annals". Book by Tacitus, Book III, 27,

  127 Copy quote

  Show source

• The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.

  Albert Einstein

  Country, Weed, War

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.6, Broadway Books

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more.

  Allan H. Meltzer

  Government, Communism, Revenue

  47 Copy quote