Libertarianism Quotes - Page 25

• Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

  William Howard Taft

  Rights, Self, People

  William Howard Taft, David Henry Burton (2002). “The Collected Works of William Howard Taft: Presidential messages to Congress”

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• 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.

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• I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.

  Clarence Thomas

  Philosophy, Believe, Rights

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• 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

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• But when no risk is taken there is no freedom. It is thus that, in an industrial society, the plethora of laws made for our personal safety convert the land into a nursery, and policemen hired to protect us become selfserving busybodies.

  Alan Watts

  Taken, Law, Land

  Alan Watts (2010). “Tao: The Watercourse Way”, p.43, Souvenir Press

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• The history of liberty is the history of limitations on the power of government, not the increase of it. When we resist, therefore, the concentration of power, we are resisting the processes of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Death, Power, Government

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• Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit.

  Milton Friedman

  Party, Keys, Long

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.19, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Fear, Government, Political

  Richard Henry Lee (1825). “Memoir of the Life of Richard H. Lee, and His Correspondence with the Most Distinguished Men in America and Europe”

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• Successful ... politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.

  Walter Lippmann

  Insecure, Successful, Men

  1955 The Public Philosophy, ch.2, sect.4.

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• The proper direction of man's thought is not toward the creation of new laws for government, but toward the acceptance of every person's moral dignity.

  Edmund Yates

  Acceptance, Men, Law

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• Conservatives and liberals are kindred spirits as far as government spending is concerned. First, let's make sure we understand what government spending is. Since government has no resources of its own, and since there's no Tooth Fairy handing Congress the funds for the programs it enacts, we are forced to recognize that government spending is no less than the confiscation of one person's property to give it to another to whom it does not belong - in effect, legalized theft.

  Walter E. Williams

  Government, Giving, Liberty

  "All it takes is guts". Book by Walter E. Williams, 1987.

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• Wealth comes from successful individual efforts to please one's fellow man ... that's what competition is all about: "outpleasing" your competitors to win over the consumers.

  Walter E. Williams

  Successful, Winning, Men

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• The angels and the devils are definitely within us, not within the machines we use.

  Michael Dertouzos

  Angel, Liberty, Devil

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• It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.

  Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

  Liberty, World, Libertarian

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• Ever since its founding in 1913, the Fed has described itself as an "independent" agency operated by selfless public servants striving to "fine-tune" the economy through monetary policy. In reality, however, a non-political governmental institution is as likely as a barking cat.

  Thomas DiLorenzo

  Cat, Independent, Reality

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• The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide.

  Rudolph Rummel

  War, Government, Desire

  "Death by Government". Book by Rudolph Rummel, pp. 1-2, 1994.

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• A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.

  William A. Niskanen

  Jobs, Loss, Erosion

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• A Call for Revolution, 1993 Libertarianism is rejected by the modern left - which preaches individualism but practices collectivism. Capitalism is rejected by the modern right - which preaches enterprise but practices protectionism. The libertarian faith in the mind of man is rejected by religionists who have faith only in the sins of man. . . . The libertarian insistence that each man is a sovereign land of liberty, with his primary allegiance to himself, is rejected by patriots who sing of freedom but also shout of banners and boundaries.

  Karl Hess

  Faith, Men, Land

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• To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Taken, Intelligent, Self

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• Libertarianism is rejected by the modern left - which preaches individualism but practices collectivism. Capitalism is rejected by the modern right-which preaches enterprise but practices protectionism.

  Karl Hess

  Practice, Individualism, Modern

  L. K. Samuels, Thomas Szasz, Douglas Casey, Brian Clelland, David Friedman (2017). “Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer”, p.34, BookBaby

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• Libertarianism is 'cultish,' say the sophisticates. Of course, there's nothing cultish at all about allegiance to the state, with its flags, its songs, its mass murders, its little children saluting and paying homage to pictures of their dear leaders on the wall, etc.

  Thomas Woods

  Song, Children, Wall

  FaceBook post by Tom Woods from Sep 27, 2011

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• Libertarianism is the simple morality we learned as children: Don’t strike first, don’t steal or cheat, keep your promises. If you inadvertently fail to live up to these standards, make it up to the person you’ve harmed. If someone harms you, you may defend yourself as needed to stop the aggressor and obtain reparations. This simple morality works group-to-group just as it works one-to-one to bring about a peaceful and prosperous world.

  Mary Ruwart

  Children, Simple, Peaceful

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• Libertarianism is a theory of politics that is so compelling that once you have absorbed it, it becomes the lens through which you end up understanding all economic and political events.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Political, Understanding, Events

  Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. (2013). “Fascism versus Capitalism”, p.144, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• The many woes that afflict out nation are rooted in the morally bankrupt paradigms of socialism, interventionism, and empire that have held our nation in their grip for decades and that the only real solution to such woes is libertarianism.

  Jacob G. Hornberger

  Real, Woe, Empires

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