Libertarianism Quotes

• If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Freedom, Patriotic, Libertarian Party

  "Strictly Personal" by W. Somerset Maugham, (ch. 31), 1941.

  118 Copy quote

  Show source

• A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Sheep, Government, Political

  210 Copy quote

• If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Freedom, Hate, Attachment

  United States v. Schwimmer (dissenting opinion) (1929)

  85 Copy quote

  Show source

• The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

  John F. Kennedy

  Freedom, Men, Rights

  1963 On sending national guardsmen to ensure peaceful integration at the University of Alabama. Address to the nation, 11 Jun.

  138 Copy quote

  Show source

• As government expands, liberty contracts.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Political, Liberty

  Farewell Address to the Nation, delivered 11 January 1989, Washington D.C.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• f you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals - if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

  Ronald Reagan

  Believe, Heart, Thinking

  "Reason" Magazine, July 1, 1975.

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• The 'private sector' of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and the 'public sector' is, in fact, the coercive sector.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Political, Liberty, Libertarian

  Henry Hazlitt (1971). “Man Vs. the Welfare State”, p.121, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Freedom, Government, Our Generation

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, 1960.

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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”

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.

  Samuel Gompers

  Business, Failure, People

  "Bionomics: Economy as Business Ecosystem". Book by Michael L Rothschild, p. 115, 1990.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

  Winston Churchill

  Freedom, Humor, Men

  Winston S. Churchill “Young Statesman”

  166 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.

  Thomas Reed

  Libertarian Party, Evil, Liberty

  "Will It Be As Always?" by Henryk A. Kowalczyk, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 5, 2015.

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Peace, Honesty, War

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  93 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

  Mary McCarthy

  Liberty, Libertarian, Modern

  "The Vita Activa". The New Yorker, October 18, 1958.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

  George Mason

  Gun, People, Second Amendment

  85 Copy quote

• Democracy is the road to socialism.

  Karl Marx

  Historical, Democracy, Liberty

  147 Copy quote

• If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Errors, Safety

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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)

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

  James Madison

  Truth, Men, Presidential

  James Madison's notes on the debates in the Federal Convention, avalon.law.yale.edu. July 11, 1787.

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

  James Madison

  Country, Gun, Government

  39 Copy quote
• 

  It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.

  George MacDonald

  Power, Men, People

  124 Copy quote

• In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.

  Walter Lippmann

  Men, Justice, Liberty

  Walter Lippmann (1938). “The good society”, p.267, Transaction Publishers

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy is indispensable to socialism.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Historical, Democracy, Liberty

  17 Copy quote

• Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Tyrants, Libertarian Party, Thought Provoking

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.94, Beacon Press

  146 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Memories, Freedom, Political

  8 Copy quote