Libertarian Quotes - Page 3

• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  122 Copy quote

  Show source

• A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  113 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

  Lawrence Summers

  Car, Liberty, World

  50 Copy quote

• There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

  Christopher Morley

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  CHRISTOPHER MORLEY (1922). “WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS”

  493 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

  Plato

  Plato, War, Government

  290 Copy quote

• It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles. H.L. Mencken once said that the state doesn't just want to make you obey. It tries to make you want to obey. And that's one thing the government schools do very well.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Children, Growing Up, Real

  26 Copy quote

• The power to tax is the power to destroy.

  John Marshall

  Inspirational, Taxation, Communism

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.338, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Patriotic, Free Opinion

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Ebola, Political Will, Nwo

  The Washington Post, December 23, 1973.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

  John Locke

  Self Esteem, Philosophical, Men

  John Locke, John W. Yolton (1977). “The Locke Reader: Selections from the Works of John Locke with a General Introduction and Commentary”, p.289, CUP Archive

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Peace, War, Patriotic

  Douglas MacArthur's address to the Annual Stockholders Sperry Rand Corporation in New York (July 30, 1957) as quoted in "General MacArthur Speeches and Reports 1908-1964" edited by Edward T. Imparato (p. 206), June 14, 2000.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Peace, War, Home

  Douglas MacArthur's address to the Annual Stockholders Sperry Rand Corporation in New York (July 30, 1957) as quoted in "General MacArthur Speeches and Reports 1908-1964" edited by Edward T. Imparato (p. 206), June 14, 2000.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

  James Madison

  Patriotic, Men, Law

  The Federalist no. 62 (1788).

  78 Copy quote

  Show source

• The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

  James Madison

  War, Liberty, Tyranny Founding Fathers

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.451

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

  James Madison

  Power, Men, Liberty

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

  John Stuart Mill

  Motivational, Freedom, Names

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.160, Hackett Publishing

  114 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Drinking, Ignorance, Stupid People

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer”, p.110, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

  George Orwell

  Time, Freedom, Future

  115 Copy quote

• I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.

  Ron Paul

  Peace, Government, Giving

  17 Copy quote

• I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

  Dan Quayle

  Funny, Witty, Freedom

  Quoted in Wall Street Journal, 26 May 1989

  87 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

  Ayn Rand

  Wisdom, Power, Men

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.334, Hamilton Books

  107 Copy quote

  Show source

• It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Men, Offering

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.677, Penguin

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Invisible Hand, Government

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)

  217 Copy quote

  Show source

• Education is a weapon the effect of which is determined by the hands which wield it, by who is to be struck down.

  Joseph Stalin

  Education, School, Reality

  "H. G. Wells : 'It seems to me that I am more to the Left than you, Mr Stalin'". Interview with H. G. Wells, www.newstatesman.com. October 27, 1934.

  608 Copy quote

  Show source

• When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.

  Dorothy Thompson

  Taken, Reality, Political

  21 Copy quote