Libertarianism Quotes - Page 25

• A Call for Revolution, 1993 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. The libertarian faith in the mind of man is rejected by religionists who have faith only in the sins of man. . . . The libertarian insistence that each man is a sovereign land of liberty, with his primary allegiance to himself, is rejected by patriots who sing of freedom but also shout of banners and boundaries.

  Karl Hess

  Faith, Men, Land

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• The desire of gold is not for gold. It is not the love of much wheat, and wool and household stuff. It is the means of freedom and benefit.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, Mean, Feel Good

  "The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude".

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• Libertarianism is a theory of politics that is so compelling that once you have absorbed it, it becomes the lens through which you end up understanding all economic and political events.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Political, Understanding, Events

  Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. (2013). “Fascism versus Capitalism”, p.144, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Libertarianism is the simple morality we learned as children: Don’t strike first, don’t steal or cheat, keep your promises. If you inadvertently fail to live up to these standards, make it up to the person you’ve harmed. If someone harms you, you may defend yourself as needed to stop the aggressor and obtain reparations. This simple morality works group-to-group just as it works one-to-one to bring about a peaceful and prosperous world.

  Mary Ruwart

  Children, Simple, Peaceful

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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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• Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

  Clarence Thomas

  Respect, Government, Law

  Concurring in Adarand v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 1995.

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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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• 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, Libertarian

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

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• The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble, it need not be honored when it's invalid on its face.

  Potter Stewart

  Liberty, Needs, Speech

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• I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.

  Herbert Spencer

  Liberty, Citizens, Libertarian

  "The man versus the state: with six essays on government, society, and freedom".

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• One evening, when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea urn, which was boiling merrily ... My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said "Let him touch it." So I touched it - and that was my first lesson in the meaning of liberty.

  John Ruskin

  Mother, Taken, Nurse

  John Ruskin (1905). “The Works of John Ruskin”

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• The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.

  P.D. Ouspensky

  Country, Law, Numbers

  "A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art". Book by P.D. Ouspensky, 1931.

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• Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.

  Charles Evans Hughes

  Light, Government, Liberty

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• The proper direction of man's thought is not toward the creation of new laws for government, but toward the acceptance of every person's moral dignity.

  Edmund Yates

  Acceptance, Men, Law

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• Conservatives and liberals are kindred spirits as far as government spending is concerned. First, let's make sure we understand what government spending is. Since government has no resources of its own, and since there's no Tooth Fairy handing Congress the funds for the programs it enacts, we are forced to recognize that government spending is no less than the confiscation of one person's property to give it to another to whom it does not belong - in effect, legalized theft.

  Walter E. Williams

  Government, Giving, Liberty

  "All it takes is guts". Book by Walter E. Williams, 1987.

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• There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for the crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have.

  Harry S. Truman

  Country, Men, Liberty

  Harry S. Truman (2014). “1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope”, p.345, New Word City

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• I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.

  Clarence Thomas

  Philosophy, Believe, Rights

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• A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.

  William A. Niskanen

  Jobs, Loss, Erosion

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• The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide.

  Rudolph Rummel

  War, Government, Desire

  "Death by Government". Book by Rudolph Rummel, pp. 1-2, 1994.

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• Ever since its founding in 1913, the Fed has described itself as an "independent" agency operated by selfless public servants striving to "fine-tune" the economy through monetary policy. In reality, however, a non-political governmental institution is as likely as a barking cat.

  Thomas DiLorenzo

  Cat, Independent, Reality

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• It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.

  Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

  Liberty, World, Libertarian

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• The angels and the devils are definitely within us, not within the machines we use.

  Michael Dertouzos

  Angel, Liberty, Devil

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• Wealth comes from successful individual efforts to please one's fellow man ... that's what competition is all about: "outpleasing" your competitors to win over the consumers.

  Walter E. Williams

  Successful, Winning, Men

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• The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy. One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote; they depend on no elections.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Rights, Political, Liberty

  "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624". Judicial opinion, 1943.

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