Libertarianism Quotes - Page 15

• Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.

  Harry Browne

  Liberty, Campaigns, Libertarian

  "Liberty A to Z". Book by Harry Browne (p. 151), 2004.

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• Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.

  Harry Browne

  Government, Liberty, Principles

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• A society based on the freedom to choose is better than a society based on the principles of socialism, communism and coercion.

  Milton Friedman

  Liberty, Principles, Coercion

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• Political leaders in capitalist countries who cheer the collapse of socialism in other countries continue to favor socialist solutions in their own. They know the words, but they have not learned the tune.

  Milton Friedman

  Country, Cheer, Leader

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.9, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• 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

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• For those looking for security, be forewarned that there's nothing more insecure than a political promise.

  Harry Browne

  Insecure, Political, Promise

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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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• For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.

  Gore Vidal

  Average, Freedom Of Speech, Liberty

  Gore Vidal (2011). “Burr: A Novel”, p.598, Vintage

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• To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled - by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Law, Liberty, Libertarian

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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 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

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• 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

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• The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures, as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline.

  Milton Friedman

  Letting Go, Weed, Loss

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• The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

  Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.126, Cambridge University Press

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• The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Libertarian, States

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.187, NYU Press

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• This, then, is freedom in the external life of man-that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Independent, Men, Liberty

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist”, p.168, VM eBooks

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• The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Political, Police

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method”

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• The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave.

  Ludwig von Mises

  People, Liberty, Libertarian

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

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• The rights of the individual should be the primary object of all governments.

  Mercy Otis Warren

  Rights, Government, Liberty

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• If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the world.

  E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

  Men, Liberty, World

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• The desire of businessmen for profits is what drives prices down unless forcibly prevented from engaging in price competition, usually by governmental activity.

  Thomas Sowell

  Competition, Desire, Liberty

  Thomas Sowell (1996). “Knowledge And Decisions”, p.225, Basic Books

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• The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Gun, Rights, People

  "The Federalist Papers". Book by Alexander Hamilton, essay No. 69, 1787 - 1788.

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• The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Government, Southern

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• The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it "undermines the work ethic," but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives.

  Charles A. Murray

  Odds, Work Ethic, Liberty

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• A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.

  Granville Hicks

  Men, Thinking, Liberty

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