Libertarian Quotes - Page 26

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  In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

  Mark Twain

  Change, Thank You, Memorial Day

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.351, Courier Corporation

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• Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters.

  Leonard Read

  Philosophy, Libertarian Party, Liberty

  "How to Advance Liberty" by Leonard Read, mises.org. August 03, 2011.

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• The public school system: "Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority." - Walter Karp, Editor Harper's Magazine
  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

  Crush, Creativity, School

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  A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.

  Charles Kettering

  Creativity, Engineering, Innovation

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• Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.

  Adam Smith

  Reality, Government, Defense

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.299

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• Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Life, Bullying, Being Yourself

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• Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Gun, Law

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• In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

  Charles de Gaulle

  Freedom, Political Will, Order

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  The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.29, Vintage

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• The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Law, Sick

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1771 - 1779, the Summary View, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

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• An armed society is a polite society.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Atheist, Gun, Society

  Robert A. Heinlein (1960). “Beyond This Horizon”, Roc

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• Men in Government monopolize the necessary use of force; they are not using their energies productively; they are not milking cows. To get butter, they must use guns; they have nothing else to use.

  Rose Wilder Lane

  Gun, Men, Necessary Use

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• A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Country, Freedom

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.17, RosettaBooks

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• America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

  John Quincy Adams

  Peace, War, America

  "Speech of July 4, 1821". John Quincy Adams " The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotation. Hugh Rawson and Margaret Miner. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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• When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Soldier, Liberty, Borders

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• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

  William J. H. Boetcker

  Libertarian Party, Liberty, Discouraging

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  The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Trust, Witty

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

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• Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

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• Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.

  Orson Welles

  Country, Food, Lunch Break

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• No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Trust, Freedom

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• In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Freedom, Law

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Gandhigrams”

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• The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.

  Thomas Szasz

  Hands, Self Reliance, Liberty

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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• Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Religious, Freedom

  "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

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• The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

  Edmund Burke

  Bullying, Freedom, Work

  Speech on the Middlesex Election, 7 February 1771, in 'The Speeches' (1854)

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