Libertarian Quotes - Page 3

• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

  Lawrence Summers

  Car, Liberty, World

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• There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

  Christopher Morley

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  CHRISTOPHER MORLEY (1922). “WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS”

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• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

  Plato

  Plato, War, Government

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• It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles. H.L. Mencken once said that the state doesn't just want to make you obey. It tries to make you want to obey. And that's one thing the government schools do very well.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Children, Growing Up, Real

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• The power to tax is the power to destroy.

  John Marshall

  Inspirational, Taxation, Communism

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.338, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• Wherever politics intrudes upon economic life, political success is readily attained by saying what people like to hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insi

  Hans F. Sennholz

  Honesty, Freedom, People

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• Since there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Rights, Ideas, Numbers

  Ayn Rand (1990). “The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought”, p.243, Penguin

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• In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Pride, Order, Opposites

  "The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy".

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• When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.

  Dorothy Thompson

  Taken, Reality, Political

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• It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.

  William O. Douglas

  Liberty, Citizens, Sometimes

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• The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

  George Washington

  Travel, War, 4th Of July

  George Washington (1836). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.367

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• In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

  James Madison

  Power, Men, Liberty

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

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• A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

  James Madison

  Gun, Libertarian Party, Assault Weapons

  James Madison, Gaillard Hunt, James Brown Scott (1999). “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America”, p.690, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Weed, Men, Blow

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• A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Life, Government, Political

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.25, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• 

  The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

  Ayn Rand

  Wisdom, Power, Men

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.334, Hamilton Books

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• Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

  George Washington

  Peace, War, Government

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• The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Mother, Desire, Liberty

  Saint John Chrysostom, William John Copeland (1840). “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians: And Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians, of S. John Chrysostom ...”, p.81

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• Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping toward destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interest of everyone hangs on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Responsibility, Men

  Ludwig Von Mises (1974). “Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses”

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• Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

  Helen Keller

  Freedom, Real, Mean

  Helen Keller (2011). “To Live, to Think, to Hope: Inspirational Quotes by Helen Keller”, p.68, Matthew Gordon

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• I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.

  Ron Paul

  Peace, Government, Giving

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• There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

  Daniel Webster

  Mean, Men, Gun

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

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• Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Drinking, Ignorance, Stupid People

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer”, p.110, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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