Libertarianism Quotes - Page 24

• There is nothing new in state interventionism. It is as old and reactionary as societal organization itself. Always, when it permeates the body politic, it kills the nation.

  Spruille Braden

  Organization, Liberty, Body

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• Public Schools too often fail because they are shielded from the very force that improves performance and sparks innovation in nearly every other human enterprise - competition.

  Bob Lutz

  School, Competition, Innovation

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• A caged canary is safe but not free.

  Walter E. Williams

  Liberty, Safe, Libertarian

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• Americans have the mistaken viewpoint that Lady Liberty is only a peacetime luxury who is ill-equipped to fight the nasties. Therefore, they reason, we need an equally nasty Big Brother. Americans have forgotten that Lady Liberty is one ferocious mother when protecting her children.

  Mary Ruwart

  Mother, Brother, Children

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• There's no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom.

  Barry Goldwater

  Country, Liberty, Defense

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• Politicians, like bombers, seldom see their victims.

  Donald J. Boudreaux

  Liberty, Bombers, Libertarian

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• Government should stay the hell out of people's business.

  Barry Goldwater

  Government, People, Liberty

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• Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality, not equality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural differences inherent in man - in temperament, character, and capacity - and it respects those differences. We are not alike and no law can make us so.

  Frank Chodorov

  Character, Men, Law

  Frank Chodorov, Charles H. Hamilton (1980). “Fugitive essays: selected writings of Frank Chodorov”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• The cure for evil and disorder is more liberty, not suppression.

  Alexander Berkman

  Evil, Liberty, Libertarian

  Alexander Berkman (2003). “What is Anarchism?”, p.234, AK Press

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

  George Herbert

  Liberty, Libertarian, Donkey

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• The American people are becoming more and more afraid of, and are running away from, their own revolution.

  Leonard Read

  Running, People, Liberty

  Leonard E. Read (1990). “The freedom philosophy”, Foundation for Economic Education

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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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• 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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• Look not to the politicians; look to yourselves.

  Richard Cobden

  Liberty, Looks, Libertarian

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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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• 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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• Libertarianism is rejected by the modern left - which preaches individualism but practices collectivism. Capitalism is rejected by the modern right-which preaches enterprise but practices protectionism.

  Karl Hess

  Practice, Individualism, Modern

  L. K. Samuels, Thomas Szasz, Douglas Casey, Brian Clelland, David Friedman (2017). “Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer”, p.34, BookBaby

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• To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Fear, Government, Political

  Richard Henry Lee (1825). “Memoir of the Life of Richard H. Lee, and His Correspondence with the Most Distinguished Men in America and Europe”

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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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• Libertarianism is 'cultish,' say the sophisticates. Of course, there's nothing cultish at all about allegiance to the state, with its flags, its songs, its mass murders, its little children saluting and paying homage to pictures of their dear leaders on the wall, etc.

  Thomas Woods

  Song, Children, Wall

  FaceBook post by Tom Woods from Sep 27, 2011

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• Successful ... politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.

  Walter Lippmann

  Insecure, Successful, Men

  1955 The Public Philosophy, ch.2, sect.4.

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• The many woes that afflict out nation are rooted in the morally bankrupt paradigms of socialism, interventionism, and empire that have held our nation in their grip for decades and that the only real solution to such woes is libertarianism.

  Jacob G. Hornberger

  Real, Woe, Empires

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• Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal - because I'm an idealist.

  Neil Peart

  Believe, Heart, Principles

  "Q&A: Neil Peart On Rush's New LP and Being a 'Bleeding Heart Libertarian'". Interview with Andy Greene, www.rollingstone.com. June 12, 2012.

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• Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit.

  Milton Friedman

  Party, Keys, Long

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.19, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Taken, Intelligent, Self

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