Libertarian quotes
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LibertyWord Libertarian quotes |
Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:51 pm |
Here are some of my favorite quotes. More could be found on http://www.lpboulder.com/quotes/. I wonder if people still can come up with original libertarian phrases as good as these.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. - Edward Abbey
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. - John Adams
That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression. - Alabama, Declararion of Rights Article
When a government takes over a people?s economic life it becomes absolute, and when it has become absolute it destroys the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning of the people it governs. - Maxwell Anderson
The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants. - Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac.
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. ? George Bernard Shaw
The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates. ? Tacitus
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ? George Washington
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. ? Mark Twain
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. ? Robert Heinlein
A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. ? Thomas Jefferson
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. ? James Bovard
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. ? Thomas Jefferson
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ? Goethe
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. ? H.L. Mencken
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. ? H.L. Mencken
It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve. ? Henry George
Where morality is present, laws are unnecessary. Without morality, laws are unenforceable. ? Anonymous
The power to tax is the power to destroy. ? John Marshall
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. ? C. S. Lewis
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. ? Ayn Rand
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too. ? Somerset Maugham
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. ? Alexander Tytler
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. ? G. Gordon Liddy
The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced. ? Frank Zappa
I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights. ? Abraham Lincoln
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. ? Montesquieu
When important issues affecting the life of an individual are decided by somebody else, it makes no difference to the individual whether that somebody else is a king, a dictator, or society at large. ? James Taggart
The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. ? Milton Friedman
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. ? P.J. O'Rourke
If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. ? Winston Churchill
Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. ? Charles Peguy
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. ? Ronald Reagan
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. ? P.J. O'Rourke
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. ? Barry Goldwater
Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. ? Milton Friedman
There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money ? if a gun is held to his head. ? P.J. O'Rourke
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. ? William Allen White
Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your government is doing to you. ? Joseph Sobran
In 1940, teachers were asked what they regarded as the three major problems in American schools. They identified the three major problems as: Littering, noise, and chewing gum. Teachers last year were asked what the three major problems in American schools were, and they defined them as: Rape, assault, and suicide. ? William Bennett
The threat posed by humans to the natural environment is nothing compared to the threat to humans posed by global environmental policy. ? Fred L. Smith
This country is a one-party country. Half of it is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians. ? Hugh Downs
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. ? Winston Churchill
If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves. ? Thomas Sowell
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. ? Albert Einstein
Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult. ? Andre Marrou
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
America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. ? Ayn Rand
If you obey a law simply because it is the law, that's a pretty likely sign that it shouldn't be a law. ? Unknown
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
The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave. ? Ayn Rand
They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here? ? Paul Harvey
This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future! ? Adolph Hitler [1935] The Weapons Act of Nazi Germany.
What's *just* has been debated for centuries but let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn *belongs* to you ? and why? ? Walter Williams
A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ? is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence. ? Ayn Rand
It is not charity if it's at the point of a gun. ? Unknown
The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. ? Ayn Rand
When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress? ? Marilyn French
What is a Communist? One who has yearnings ? for equal division of unequal earnings. ? Ebenezer Elliot
Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression. ? Dick Feagler
There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation. ? Fr?d?ric Bastiat
The office of the government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves. ? William Ellery Channing
Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion ? the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals ? the technique of the marketplace. ? Milton Friedman
It's no accident that capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are, alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty. ? Albert Einstein
According to George Hitchings, co-winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in medicine, FDA's five-year delay in approving the antibacterial drug Septra cost 80,000 lives. ? Sam Kazman
It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money. ? P.J. O'Rourke
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. ? Thomas Jefferson
What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long. ? Thomas Sowell
Liberals believe government should take people's earnings to give to poor people. Conservatives disagree. They think government should confiscate people's earnings and give them to farmers and insolvent banks. The compelling issue to both conservatives and liberals is not whether it is legitimate for government to confiscate one's property to give to another, the debate is over the disposition of the pillage. ? Walter Williams
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Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:47 pm |
Hi LibertyWord, thanks for your excellent post. Everybody, feel free to add quotes by replying to this post. Every paragraph that doesn't have a hyperlink in it (like this: http://www.mayminforcongress.com) will be added to the random list for the home page automatically. If you have a website as a source, please include at the top of your post.
For example, here are some Simpsons quotes from http://www.snpp.com.
IRS Auditor: Mr. Simpson, this government computer can process over nine tax returns per day. Did you really think you could fool it?
- Simpsons, The Trouble With Trillions
Mary Bailey: My worthy opponent thinks that the voters of this state are gullible fools. I, however, prefer to rely on their intelligence and good judgement.
Reporter: Interesting strategy.
- Simpsons, Two Cars in Every Garage, Three Eyes on Every Fish
Kent Brockman: I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.
- Simpsons, Bart's Comet
Bob: That was a _big_ mistake, Bart. No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it.
- Simpsons, Sideshow Bob Roberts
Lisa: Didn't you wonder why you were getting checks for doing nothing?
Grampa: I figured, 'cuz the Democrats were in power again.
- Simpsons, The Front
Homer: But I have to have a gun! It's in the Constitution!
Lisa: Dad! The Second Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today!
Homer: You couldn't be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn't have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here any time he wants, and start shoving you around. [pushing Lisa] Do you want that? [pushing her harder] Huh? Do you?
Lisa: [quietly indignant] No...
Homer: All right, then.
- Simpsons, The Cartridge Family
Last edited by Phil Maymin on Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:29 am; edited 2 times in total
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:04 pm |
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man?s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.
~ Albert Einstein
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
~ Patrick Henry
The only part of the conduct of anyone for which he is amenable to society is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
~ John Stuart Mill
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
~ Thomas Jefferson
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Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:10 am |
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. ~Edward R. Murrow
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. ~Moshe Dayan
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Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:46 am |
No act is truly moral unless it is freely chosen. - Meyer?