Libertarianism Quotes - Page 5

• Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  Quoted in Cleveland Plain Dealer, 27 Oct. 1993

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• It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

  James F. Cooper

  Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Inspirational, Humor, Government

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• You can only be free if I am free.

  Clarence Darrow

  Freedom, Liberty, Libertarian

  Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.140, University of Chicago Press

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• Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

  Edmund Burke

  Freedom, Carpe Diem, Law

  Speech at the Guildhall, Bristol, England, 6 Sept. 1780

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• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

  James Bovard

  Humor, Two, Democracies Have

  James Bovard (2016). “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty”, p.333, St. Martin's Griffin

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• A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.

  Spiro T. Agnew

  Men, Liberty, Tiny

  John R. Coyne, Spiro T. Agnew (1972). “The Impudent Snobs: Agnew Vs. the Intellectual Establishment”, New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House

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• Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free.

  Harry Browne

  Children, Fighting, Government

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• They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?

  Paul Harvey

  Gun, Liberty, Cuba

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• There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Differences, People, Liberty

  "Individualism: True and False" by Friedrich Hayek, 1945.

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• Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Freedom, Rights

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954”, p.219, Best Books on

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• Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it.

  Allan Bloom

  Learning, Cynical, Political

  Allan Bloom (2008). “Closing of the American Mind”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

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  If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Years, Political

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• Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

  Honore de Balzac

  Liberty, Giants, Libertarian

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• Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

  Milton Friedman

  Power, Liberty, Libertarian

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.201, University of Chicago Press

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• The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Libertarian Party, America

  "The Court years, 1939-1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas‎". Book by William O. Douglas, 1980.

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• Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.

  F. Lee Bailey

  Government, Usa, Rights

  "Newsweek" Magazine, April 17, 1967.

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• Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment.

  Philip K. Dick

  Moving, Errors, Car

  1977 A Scanner Darkly, author's note.

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• Every friend of freedom... must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.

  Milton Friedman

  Army, Jail, Alcohol

  "An Open Letter to Bill Bennett". Milton Friedman, The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 1989.

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• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Government, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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  Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

  Milton Friedman

  Party, Pie, Liberty

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.

  Ayn Rand

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.380, Penguin

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• Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Seizing the results of someone's labor is equivalent to seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities.

  Robert Nozick

  Philosophy, Political, Liberty

  "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" by Robert Nozick, (p. 169), 1974.

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• We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.

  Stephen Schneider

  Libertarian Party, Scary, Doubt

  "Apocalypse Abuse and 'Climate Doomism'" by Ronald Bailey, reason.com. July 13, 2017.

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• Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

  Milton Friedman

  Freedom, Liberty, Libertarian

  Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman (2002). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.15, University of Chicago Press

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