Libertarian Quotes - Page 32

• If I deny the authority of the State when it presents my tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard, this makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Children, Men, Liberty

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.82, Penguin

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• Voters who live off taxpayers are the Democrats' ace in the hole. The Democrats created big programs and never let the recipients forget it. This gives them an initial advantage of tens of millions of votes in any presidential election.

  Joseph Sobran

  Giving, Presidential, Liberty

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• Terrorism is a direct response to the crimes our government has committed against foreigners (besides which, the actual terrorists are within our own government)

  Gore Vidal

  Government, Liberty, Terrorism

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• If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient."

  Gore Vidal

  Government, Law, Drug

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• This country was founded by religious nuts with guns.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Country, Religious, Gun

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut”, p.228, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Those (who) seek to establish systems of Government based on the regimentation of all Human Beings by a handful of individual rulers...call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Government, Order, Liberty

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• Liberals love to say things like, "We're just asking everyone to pay their fair share." But government is not about asking. It is about telling. The difference is fundamental. It is the difference between making love and being raped, between working for a living and being a slave. The Internal Revenue service is not asking anybody to do anything. It confiscates your assets and puts you behind bars if you don't pay.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, Differences, Making Love

  Thomas Sowell (1999). “Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• Our government, taxes, and ideas of freedom are already duplicates of the Old World. Our politicians determine how we should live our lives - and our individual liberties are sacrificed for the benefit of the Fatherland.

  Harry Browne

  Government, Ideas, Liberty

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• Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Mean, Gun, Safety

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• There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another ... All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim.

  Emma Goldman

  Mean, Liberty, Purpose

  Emma Goldman (2003). “My Disillusionment in Russia”, p.260, Courier Corporation

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• What seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition.

  Learned Hand

  Government, Different Faces, Political

  Learned Hand (1968). “The art and craft of judging: the decisions of Judge Learned Hand”

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• Men love liberty because it protects them from control and humiliation by others, thus affording them the possibility of dignity; they loathe liberty because it throws them back on their own abilities and resources, thus confronting them with the possibility of insignificance.

  Thomas Szasz

  Men, Liberty, Dignity

  Thomas Szasz (2017). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.109, Routledge

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• 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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• 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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• Form 1040 was chosen by the IRS because for every $50 you earn, you get 10 and they get 40.

  Jay Leno

  Liberty, Irs, Form

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• The Constitution poses no threat to our current form of government.

  Joseph Sobran

  Government, Liberty, Constitution

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• Remember, to them it is us who are the enemy.

  N. F. Simpson

  Enemy, Liberty, Remember

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• The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

  William Safire

  Honesty, Integrity, Character

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• The Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes from the nature of things. It declares the inalienable rights of man not only against all government but also against the people collectively.

  Walter Lippmann

  Men, Rights, People

  Walter Lippmann, Clinton Rossiter, James Lare (1982). “The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy”, p.130, Harvard University Press

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• Nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.

  Rudolph Rummel

  Trust, People, Liberty

  "Rudolph Rummel Talks About the Miracle of Liberty and Peace". The Freeman Interview, fee.org. July 1, 1997.

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• If a donkey bray at you, don't bray at him.

  George Herbert

  Liberty, Donkey, Ifs

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• The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights.

  H. L. Mencken

  Gun, Rights, Hands

  "On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe". Book by H L. Mencken, 1956.

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• Blind belief can be comforting, but it can easily cripple reason and productivity, and stop intellectual progress.

  James Randi

  Blind Belief, Comforting, Intellectual

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• Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?

  Martin Luther

  Wine, Men, Abuse

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