Libertarianism Quotes - Page 22

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

  N. F. Simpson

  Enemy, Liberty, Libertarian

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• It is a free market that makes monopolies impossible.

  Ayn Rand

  Liberty, Libertarian, Impossible

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.66, Penguin

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• If workers struggle for higher wages, this is hailed as "social gains", if businessmen struggle for higher profits, this is damned as "selfish greed".

  Ayn Rand

  Selfish, Struggle, Greed

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.42, Penguin

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• A vote is "wasted" when someone fails to vote their conscience.

  Jesse Ventura

  Liberty, Libertarian, Vote

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• Anything called a "program" is unconstitutional.

  Joseph Sobran

  Liberty, Libertarian, Program

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

  Joseph Sobran

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

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• Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from.

  Thomas Sowell

  Baby, Years, Liberty

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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, Libertarian

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• Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income.

  Harry Browne

  Government, Once Upon A Time, Liberty

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• Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that the State has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied.

  Arthur Miller

  People, Mind, Liberty

  "Why I Wrote 'The Crucible'". The New Yorker, October 21, 1996.

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• There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and vigorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.

  Winston Churchill

  Men, Justice, Liberty

  Sir Winston Churchill (1954). “Sir Winston Churchill: a self-portrait”

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• The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Liberty, Selfishness, Libertarian

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.325, Penguin

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• Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?"

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Race, Ignorant

  Thomas Paine (1995). “Thomas Paine: Collected Writings: Common Sense / The American Crisis / Rights of: (Library of America #76)”, p.595, Library of America

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• Do not consider Collectivists as "sincere but deluded idealists". The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not "idealistic," no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Stupidity, Lust

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• Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, War, Army

  "Political Observations" by James Madison, founders.archives.gov. April 20, 1795.

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• Somehow, the fact that more poor people are on welfare, receiving more generous payments, does not seem to have made this country a nice place to live - not even for the poor on welfare, whose condition seems not noticeably better than when they were poor and off welfare. Something appears to have gone wrong; a liberal and compassionate social policy has bred all sorts of unanticipated and perverse consequences.

  Irving Kristol

  Country, Nice, People

  Irving Kristol (1995). “Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

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• The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

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• The fact throughout history is that whenever government dominates the economic affairs of its citizenry, a free society is eroded, then destroyed, and a minority government ensues. Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; the one cannot exist without the other.

  William E. Simon

  Government, Liberty, Minorities

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• Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense of love and duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else's parents out of compulsion and fear. The voluntary transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken those bonds.

  Milton Friedman

  Support, Parent, Liberty

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

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• Going to war accelerated the move from indirect to direct rule. Almost any state that makes war finds that it cannot pay for the effort from its accumulated reserves and current revenues. Almost all war-making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat - including men - from reluctant citizens who have other uses for their resources.

  Charles Tilly

  War, Moving, Mean

  Charles Tilly, Arthur L. Stinchcombe (1997). “Roads from Past to Future”, p.149, Rowman & Littlefield

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• If the only motive was to help people who could not afford education, advocates of government involvement would have simply proposed tuition subsidies.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, People, Liberty

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• They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  War, Liberty, Vietnam

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• Resistance to tyranny is service to God.

  James Madison

  Liberty, Libertarian, Resistance

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• We do many things at the federal level that would be considered dishonest and illegal if done in the private sector.

  Donald T. Regan

  Liberty, Done, Levels

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• A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill.

  Hans F. Sennholz

  Government Debt, Liberty, Income

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