Libertarianism Quotes - Page 14

• It is not the business of the law to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright.

  Murray Rothbard

  Law, Justice, Liberty

  Murray Newton Rothbard (1978). “For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto”, p.127, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  47 Copy quote

  Show source

• The degree of a country's freedom is the degree of its prosperity.

  Ayn Rand

  Country, Liberty, Degrees

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.39, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.

  Adam Smith

  Hands, Invisible Hand, Liberty

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it "undermines the work ethic," but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives.

  Charles A. Murray

  Odds, Work Ethic, Liberty

  12 Copy quote

• The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

  John Locke

  Government, Libertarian Party, People

  30 Copy quote

• Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression.

  Dick Feagler

  Opportunity, Liberty, Libertarian

  47 Copy quote

• Government does not grow by seizing our freedoms, but by assuming our responsibilities.

  Mike Cloud

  Responsibility, Government, Liberty

  9 Copy quote

• Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Men, Choices, Liberty

  26 Copy quote

• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.

  Adam Smith

  Self, Humanity, Liberty

  Adam Smith (1817). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations0: With a life of the author : Also a view of the doctrine of Smith, compared with that of the french economists ...”, p.19

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• The era of resisting big government is never over.

  Paul Gigot

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  47 Copy quote

• I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Believe, Should Have, Liberty

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  21 Copy quote

• In our desire to have government become our benefactor and sustainer, we have allowed it to become our taskmaster and overlord. As a result, we have become little more than well-fed, well-entertained slaves to the state. Freedom, as envisioned by our forefathers, is gone.

  Chuck Baldwin

  Freedom, Government, Desire

  50 Copy quote

• Where men cannot freely convey their thoughts to one another, no other liberty is secure.

  William Ernest Hocking

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

  William Ernest Hocking (1948). “Freedom of the Press”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.

  Granville Hicks

  Men, Thinking, Liberty

  45 Copy quote

• If we have learned anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot Federalize Virtue.

  George H. W. Bush

  Past, Liberty, Libertarian

  13 Copy quote

• The Bill of Rights is a born rebel. It reeks with sedition. In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constituted authority. It is the one guaranty of human freedom to the American people.

  Frank I. Cobb

  Freedom, Rights, People

  La Follette's Weekly Magazine, 1920.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not deny the allegation, I deny the allegator.

  Jesse Jackson

  Liberty, Libertarian, Allegations

  5 Copy quote

• A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today.

  Robert E. Lee

  Yesterday, History, Liberty

  824 Copy quote

• People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.

  George Santayana

  Believe, Volcanoes, People

  George Santayana (2002). “The Works of George Santayana: The letters of George Santayana. 1921-1927. Vol. 5. Book 3”, p.138, MIT Press

  77 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

  Ayn Rand

  Suicide, Mean, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.466, Penguin

  503 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Believe, Men, Libertarian Party

  Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Orlando Williams Wight (1866). “Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising his essays, journey into Italy, and letters”, p.357

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not only can no one predict the future, we don't understand the present - and there isn't even any certainty about the past.

  Harry Browne

  Past, Liberty, Libertarian

  7 Copy quote

• I think we need to find out why the citizens of the world's wealthiest, most envied, most powerful country are so cynical, so distressed, so angry, so ticked of about so many things.

  William Bennett

  Country, Powerful, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

  Show source