Murray Rothbard Quotes

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• There can be no such thing as 'fairness in taxation.' Taxation is nothing but organized theft, and the concept of a 'fair tax' is therefore every bit as absurd as that of 'fair theft.'

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Taxation, Fairness

  134 Copy quote

• The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.

  Murray Rothbard

  Race, Enemy, Liberty

  112 Copy quote

• The State is a gang of thieves writ large - the most immoral, grasping and unscrupulous individuals in any society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Thieves, Gang, Individual

  112 Copy quote

• The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.

  Murray Rothbard

  Men, Gun, Hands

  115 Copy quote

• It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Cost, Libertarian

  Murray Rothbard (2009). “Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 8”, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  122 Copy quote

• States have always needed intellectuals to con the public into believing that its rule is wise, good, and inevitable

  Murray Rothbard

  Wise, Believe, States

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.13, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  91 Copy quote

• The natural tendency of government, once in charge of money, is to inflate and to destroy the value of the currency.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Natural, Currency

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• It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

  Murray Rothbard

  Ignorance, Discipline, People

  "The Speech Pope Francis Should Have Given" by Lawrence W. Reed, fee.org. September 24, 2015.

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• Throughout history governments have been chronically short of revenue. The reason should be clear: unlike you and me, governments do not produce useful goods and services that they can sell on the market; governments, rather than producing and selling services, live parasitically off the market and off society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Like You, Reason

  26 Copy quote

• Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences.

  Murray Rothbard

  Order, Law, Natural

  88 Copy quote

• All government operation is wasteful, inefficient, and serves the bureaucrat rather than the consumer.

  Murray Rothbard

  Government, Operations, Consumers

  50 Copy quote

• Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion.

  Murray Rothbard

  Organization, Use, Coercion

  Murray Newton Rothbard (19??). “The Anatomy of the State”, p.11, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• We libertarians are not the spokesmen for any ethnic or economic class; we are the spokesmen for all classes, for all of the public; we strive to see all of these groups united, hand-in-hand, in opposition to the plundering and privileged minority that constitutes the rulers of the State.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hands, Class, Groups

  116 Copy quote

• Free-market capitalism is a network of free and voluntary exchanges in which producers work, produce, and exchange their products for the products of others through prices voluntarily arrived at.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Economics, Produce

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1997). “The Logic of Action Two: Applications and Criticism from the Austrian School”, Edward Elgar Publishing

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• What do intellectuals and opinion makers get from big government? An increasing number of cushy jobs in the bureaucracy, or in the government-subsidized sector, staffing the welfare regulatory state, and apologizing for its policies, as well as propagandizing for them among the public. To put it bluntly, intellectuals, theorists, pundits, media elites, etc. get to live a life which they could not attain on the free market, but which they can gain at taxpayer expense.

  Murray Rothbard

  Jobs, Government, Media

  34 Copy quote

• Libertarians regard the state as the Supreme, the eternal, the best organized aggressor against the persons and property of the mass of the public. All states everywhere, whether democratic, dictatorial, or monarchical, whether red, white, blue or brown.

  Murray Rothbard

  Blue, White, Libertarian

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.56, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  14 Copy quote

• Rule by the statist elite is not benign or simply a matter of who happens to be in office: it is rule by a growing army of leeches and parasites battening off the income and wealth of hard-working Americans, destroying their property, corrupting their customs and institutions, sneering at their religion.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hard Work, Army, Office

  48 Copy quote

• Every man must have freedom, must have the scope to form, test, and act upon his own choices, for any sort of development of his own personality to take place. He must, in short, be free in order that he may be fully human.

  Murray Rothbard

  Men, Order, Choices

  Murray N. Rothbard (2011). “Economic Controversies”, p.601, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  24 Copy quote

• The best way to help the poor is to slash taxes and allow savings, investment, and creation of jobs to proceed unhampered.

  Murray Rothbard

  Jobs, Saving, Way

  40 Copy quote

• The libertarian sees the State as a giant gang of organized criminals, who live off the theft called "taxation" and use the proceeds to kill, enslave, and generally push people around. Therefore, any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves, and should be liberated as quickly as possible. Any person or group who liberates such property, who confiscates or appropriates it from the State, is performing a virtuous act and a signal service to the cause of liberty.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hands, People, Liberty

  91 Copy quote

• Just as no one is morally required to answer a robber truthfully when he asks if there are any valuables in one’s house, so no one can be morally required to answer truthfully similar questions asked by the State, e.g., when filling out income tax returns.

  Murray Rothbard

  House, Income, Answers

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.183, NYU Press

  40 Copy quote

• It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.

  Murray Rothbard

  Peace, War, Pride

  Murray N. Rothbard (2015). “The Ethics of Liberty”, p.196, NYU Press

  49 Copy quote

• You don't need a treaty to have free trade.

  Murray Rothbard

  Liberty, Needs, Libertarian

  68 Copy quote

• There is one good thing about Marx: he was not a Keynesian.

  Murray Rothbard

  Philosophy, Political, Liberty

  The Austrian Economics Newsletter Interview, 1990.

  49 Copy quote

• Minimum wage laws tragically generate unemployment, especially so among the poorest and least skilled or educated workers... Because a minimum wage, of course, does not guarantee any worker's employment; it only prohibits, by force of law, anyone from being hired at the wage which would pay his employer to hire him.

  Murray Rothbard

  Law, Doe, Unemployment

  "For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto".

  31 Copy quote

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