100 Quotes About Libertarianism

Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They more or less inherit them. Against this unearned patrimony there have always been speakers and writers who embody Einstein's injunction to 'remember your humanity and forget the rest.' It would be immodest to claim membership in this fraternity/sorority, but I hope not to have done anything to outrage it. Despite the idiotic sneer that such principles are 'fashionable, ' it is always the ideas of secularism, libertarianism, internationalism, and solidarity that stand in need of reaffirmation. . Christopher Hitchens

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals – if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. Ronald Reagan

If one prevents a man from working for the good of society while at the same time providing for the satisfaction of his own needs, then only one way remains open to him: to make himself richer and others poorer by the violent oppression and spoliation of his fellow men. Ludwig Von Mises

Socialists seem to think George Orwell’s 1984 is a suggestion, or at least are unashamed of mimicking the methods of the totalitarian state Orwell depicted. Libertarians know it to be a warning, and a government that micro-manages all aspects of humanity an intolerable reality. A.E. Samaan

There are those that want freedom from individual responsibility, and then there are those that want individual liberty. "Freedom" and "liberty" no longer mean what they used to. A desire for dependence has been made fashionably desirable. A.E. Samaan

Liberty will never yield equality. Freewill produces a mess that you either accept or reject in favor of slavery. A.E. Samaan

There is no more precious currency than the unfettered liberty to explore while engaged in an "Idea Economy". You cannot centrally plan the "Idea Economy" any more than you can plan fun or spontaneity. Regulations are restraints in an "Idea Economy". The entrepreneur is either free to experiment or not. A.E. Samaan

I am not interested in having freedom from burdens. I don't need any authority to free me from responsibility. I am not interested in having freedoms within an authoritarian's parameters. I am only interested in self-determination. I have only respect for liberty as I am a libertarian. A.E. Samaan

We have rule of lawyers, not rule of law. The legal profession has a monopoly over one branch of government as it was never intended to. The American Bar Association owns an entire branch of our government. We should not be surprised that we are the most litigious society in the world. It is big business with a stranglehold on one of the three branches of government. A.E. Samaan

Before the mid-20th century, when American libertarians entangled themselves in conservative coalitions against the New Deal and Soviet Communism, "free market" thinkers largely saw themselves as liberals or radicals, not as conservatives. Libertarian writers, from Smith to Bastiat to Spencer, had little interest in tailoring their politics to conservative or "pro-business" measurements. They frequently identified capitalists, and their protectionist policies, as among the most dangerous enemies of free exchange and property rights. Charles W. Johnson

With a [democratic] government anyone in principle can become a member of the ruling class or even the supreme power. The distinction between the rulers and the ruled as well as the class consciousness of the ruled become blurred. The illusion even arises that the distinction no longer exists: that with a public government no one is ruled by anyone, but everyone instead rules himself. Accordingly, public resistance against government power is systematically weakened. While exploitation and expropriation before might have appeared plainly oppressive and evil to the public, they seem much less so, mankind being what it is, once anyone may freely enter the ranks of those who are at the receiving end. Consequently, [exploitation will increase], whether openly in the form of higher taxes or discretely as increased governmental money “creation” (inflation) or legislative regulation. HansHermann Hoppe

If you are stuck in circumstances in which it takes Herculean efforts to get through the day– doing low-income work, obeying an authoritarian boss, buying clothes for the children, dealing with school issues, paying the rent or mortgage, fixing the car, negotiating with a spouse, paying taxes, and caring for older parents– it is not easy to pay close attention to larger political issues. Indeed you may wish that these issues would take care of themselves. It is not a huge jump from such a wish to become attracted to a public philosophy, spouted regularly at your job and on the media, that economic life would regulate itself automatically if only the state did not repeatedly intervene in it in clumsy ways. Now underfunded practices such as the license bureau, state welfare, public health insurance, public schools, public retirement plans, and the like begin to appear as awkward, bureaucratic organizations that could be replaced or eliminated if only the rational market were allowed to take care of things impersonally and quietly, as it were. Certainly such bureaucracies are indeed often clumsy. But more people are now attracted to compare that clumsiness to the myth of how an impersonal market would perform if it took on even more assignments and if state regulation of it were reduced even further. So a lot of “independents” and “moderates” may become predisposed to the myth of the rational market in part because the pressures of daily life encourage them to seek comfort in ideological formations that promise automatic rationality. . William E. Connolly

Art should be for sale. The artist should not. A.E. Samaan

LEFTISTS EAT THEIR CHILDREN: The poets, artists, and radicals are murdered first once the "revolution" actually comes about. A.E. Samaan

The people in charge can always justify doing terrible things in the name of the greater good. A slaughter here, a little torture there. It becomes moral to do things that would be immoral if an ordinary individual did ’em. Joe Hill

Individual liberty may be unable to solve every social problem, but collective violence is unable to solve any social problem. Unknown

Global libertarianism would be a borderless world society. Bryant McGill

It is infinitely better to rely on the pursuit of economic interest by landowners or street companies than to depend on the dubious “altruism” of bureaucrats and government officials. Murray N. Rothbard

There's something immoral about abandoning your common sense in matters of social importance. A.E. Samaan

Support for the arts -- merde! A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore! Robert A. Heinlein

The earliest use of writing was strictly commercial and economic, not political or bureaucratic. It was trade, entrepreneurship, and stewardship of private property, not politics, "public education" or the creation of national mythology that allowed humankind to transition from prehistory to history. Just as trade, entrepreneurship, and stewardship of private property have always been on the forefront of civilization's advancement, so were they also the driving force behind civilization's emergence. Unknown

It is illogical to say, as many etatists do, that liberalism is hostile to or hates the state, because it is opposed to the transfer of the ownership of railroads or cotton mills to the state. If a man says that sulphuric acid does not make a good hand lotion, he is not expressing hostility to sulphuric acid as such; he is simply giving his opinion concerning the limitations of its use. Ludwig Von Mises

Socialism, or communism as it is sometimes called, is merely a secular religion, where the State becomes a god. Stefan Molyneux

Every totalitarian Communist considered themselves as a Socialist first and foremost. A.E. Samaan

Socialism is not a meritocracy. By definition it places increasingly confining restraints on those that succeed the most. A.E. Samaan

Capitalists desire purchasing power. Socialists lust for the power to plan society. Which is worse? A.E. Samaan

The road to evil is paved with socialist intentions. A.E. Samaan

Anarcho-capitalism: the realization that the only way to effectively govern the market is to have an effective market in governance. Unknown

The opposite of Nazi is neither Republican nor Democrat, conservative or liberal. Totalitarianism's diametric opposite of is Libertarianism. A.E. Samaan

Making universal prosperity a right is the surest way to universal poverty. J.S.B. Morse

If you require force to promote your ideal, there is something wrong with your ideal. J.S.B. Morse

When enough people realize that they are slaves but don't have to be, revolutions happen. J.S.B. Morse

All utopias are dystopias. The term "dystopia" was coined by fools that believed a "utopia" can be functional. A.E. Samaan

People, imperfect and corruptible are society's building blocks. Political theories evading this reality are a catastrophe in waiting. A.E. Samaan

The "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" begins with "life", and "life" begins at conception. A.E. Samaan

According to an original reading of the Constitution and Declaration, the intrusiveness that is an inevitable part of big government is an offense against its people. A.E. Samaan

Some capitalism suffers from cronyism. All of socialism is perverted by the crony statism of the powerful few. A.E. Samaan

The Supreme Court of the United States is no longer a court of law. It is a forum of legal fad and fashion. A.E. Samaan

Sadly enough, individual liberty remains the ideal of revolutionary thinkers even in the 21st Century. A.E. Samaan

Civil Wars happen when the victimized are armed. Genocide happens when they are not. A.E. Samaan

Despots are elected and deposed. Laws are passed and repealed. Nations rise and fall. Individual liberty is eternal. A.E. Samaan

Statism is political fashion. Individual liberty is eternal. A.E. Samaan

Socialism is "group-think." How uninformed in history do you have to be to advocate for "group-think"?? A.E. Samaan

I think, therefore I am an individual... not a drone in a collective. I think, therefore I am... Libertarian A.E. Samaan

Some that read this book will find its Libertarian and Constitutionalist slant a bit obtuse and maybe even off-putting. This author makes no apologies for viewing the history of the eugenics movement from this political perspective. It is the ethical and legal underpinnings of the American Revolution that remain as a guiding light while the eugenics movement continues to reemerge long after its alleged demise. Limited, or rather minimal government, goes a long way to curtail the disconnect that emerges when government grows so large that it no longer feels compelled to heed to the dictates of the governed. . A.E. Samaan

The sadist desires to command and control. The masochist desires to be freed from the burdens of liberty. That is Socialism. A.E. Samaan

Thomas More's Utopia was not a recommendation. It was a warning. A.E. Samaan

The U.S. didn't achieve its liberty or prosperity by mistake. It was by design, and the architects were the Founding Fathers. Don't mess with the Constitution. The Constitution matters. A.E. Samaan

Very few tyrants argued for the slavery of the masses. Instead, they argued for their right to protect the people from themselves. A.E. Samaan

Eugenics has always been the escape valve of single payer socialized medicine. Havelock Ellis was writing about them as one and the same prior to the fin-de-siecle. Culling out of control population growth and the economic drain of the incurably sick has always been a part of socialized medicine. A.E. Samaan

Centrally planned economies are upended by out of control population. Their escape valve is eugenics. A.E. Samaan

The central planners of Democratic Socialism tighten their noose when people resist their plans and assert their rights. All Socialism is intended to devolve into Communism, and as a result, Totalitarianism. A.E. Samaan

I think, therefore I am an individual... not a drone in a collective. I think, therefore I am... Libertarian. A.E. Samaan

I was once a statist, and then I researched The Holocaust. I am now a Libertarian. A.E. Samaan

There is a very dangerous myth that #Hitler was solely fueled by racism. His desire to engineer society was pervasive. Racism alone cannot explain what happened in The Holocaust without also addressing Hitler's statist policies. A.E. Samaan

Liberty isn't everything. I just allows everything to happen. A.E. Samaan

You can either have individual liberty, or dependence on the government. One is designed to undo the other. A.E. Samaan

You can get to oppression through regulation, especially in an "Idea Economy" which necessitates liberty of the mind to explore. A.E. Samaan

Our Supreme Court is not a court of law. It is a court of conjecture and political fad. A.E. Samaan

The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private liberty. A.E. Samaan

Communism is what happens when Socialists realize that they want complete control over every aspect of human life. A.E. Samaan

The desire to engineer humanity is a sign of a mind warped by megalomania and lust for power. A.E. Samaan

Big government = oligarchy. Simple equation. Big government = loss of representation. A.E. Samaan

A "centrally planned economy" by definition discourages and despises participation by the masses. It's a bureaucratic oligarchy. A.E. Samaan

There is no law, there is only conjecture. The Progressive ethos changes the law's meaning according to fad and fashion. A.E. Samaan

The goal of libertarianism is not to permit people to be free, but to make them realize that they don't need anyone's permission to be free. Unknown

A libertarian is someone who graduated from thinking that there are problems with the state to realizing that the state is the problem. Unknown

The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. Unknown

Many rabble-rousers for libertarianism, liberty and freedom are unwitting pawns of controllers they have never even considered. Bryant McGill

The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education. Unknown

A limited state with free economic systems is the soil where the liberty tree blossoms. Orrin Woodward