Walter E. Williams Quotes

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The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.

Walter E. Williams

Government, Vision, Democracy

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Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place.

Walter E. Williams

Creating, Faces, Firsts

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But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?

Walter E. Williams

Freedom, Justice, Society

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

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(F)or 50 years, the well-meaning leftist agenda has been able to do to blacks what Jim Crow and harsh discrimination could never have done: family breakdown, illegitimacy and low academic achievement.

Walter E. Williams

Years, Achievement, Crow

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Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.

Walter E. Williams

Democracy, Liberty, Mob Rule

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Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.

Walter E. Williams

Men, People, Fellow Man

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I prefer a thief to a Congressman. A thief will take your money and be on his way, but a Congressman will stand there and bore you with the reasons why he took it.

Walter E. Williams

Bores You, Thieves, Way

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When the history of the 20th century is finally written, one of its key features will be the wanton slaughter of more than 170 million people, not in war, but by their own government. The governments that led in this slaughter are the former USSR (65 million) and the Peoples Republic of China (35-40 million). The point to remember is that these governments were the idols of America's leftists. Part of the reason for these and other tyrannical successes was because the people were first disarmed.

Walter E. Williams

War, Idols, America

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Three-fifths to two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we'd call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that's exactly what thieves do - redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders' vision, it's a sin in the eyes of God.

Walter E. Williams

Eye, Two, Government

"Bogus Right" by Walter E. Williams, econfaculty.gmu.edu. February 8, 2006.

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Here's Williams' roadmap out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits.

Walter E. Williams

Jobs, Children, School

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In keeping Americans ill-educated, ill-informed and constitutionally ignorant, the education establishment has been the politician's major and most faithful partner. It is in this sense that American education can be deemed a success.

Walter E. Williams

Faithful, Ignorant, Liberty

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There are people in need of help. Charity is one of the nobler human motivations. The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

Walter E. Williams

Motivation, Men, People

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Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".

Walter E. Williams

Powerful, Men, Thinking

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Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africa’s apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?

Walter E. Williams

People, World, Slavery

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If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.

Walter E. Williams

Liberty, Economics, Persons

Walter E. Williams (2015). “American Contempt for Liberty”, p.284, Hoover Institution Press

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The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.

Walter E. Williams

Names, Law, Imagination

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If our country is to survive and prosper, we must summon the courage to condemn and reject the liberal agenda, and we had better do it soon.

Walter E. Williams

Country, Liberty, Agendas

Walter E. Williams (2013). “More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well”, p.179, Hoover Press

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The crucial question for any policy is not what, are its intentions, but what are its effects?

Walter E. Williams

Intention, Policy, Crucial

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Preaching doom and gloom has been beneficial to the political class. They use it to gain more power and control.

Walter E. Williams

Doom And Gloom, Class, Political

Walter E. Williams (2013). “Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays”, p.91, Hoover Press

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Vote for me. I'll use my office to take another American's money and give it to you.

Walter E. Williams

Giving, Office, Liberty

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No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong.

Walter E. Williams

Giving, Religion, Liberty

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For the multiculturist/diversity crowd, culture, ideas, customs, arts and skills are a matter of racial membership where one has no more control over his culture than his race. That's a racist idea, but it's politically correct racism. It says that one's convictions, character and values are not determined by personal judgment and choices but genetically determined. In other words, as yesteryear's racists held: race determines identity.

Walter E. Williams

Art, Character, Race

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I believe in helping our fellow man in need. I believe that reaching into your own pockets to help someone in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into somebody else's pockets to help your fellow man in need is despicable. And, or those of us who are Christians, I'm very sure that when God gave Moses the commandment Thou Shalt Not Steal, he did not mean ...unless you get a majority vote in Congress.

Walter E. Williams

Christian, Believe, Mean

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Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatens, quacks, and hustlers.

Walter E. Williams

Mean, Government, Important

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Despite the miracles of capitalism, it doesn't do well in popularity polls. One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the non-existent, non-realizable utopias of socialism or communism. Any earthly system, when compared to a Utopia, will pale in comparison. But for the ordinary person, capitalism, with all of its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.

Walter E. Williams

Miracle, Everyday, Desire

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Born: June 30, 1936
Occupation: Economist
Cite this Page: Citation

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