Interesting Quotes
Libertarianism
“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
Government
“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 (1801)
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” – Voltaire
“Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, ‘See, if it wasn’t for us, you couldn’t walk.’”
– Harry Browne
Congress
“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.” – Thomas B. Reed (1886)
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” – Mark Twain (1866)
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” – Calvin Coolidge
“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Montesquieu
Humans and Human Nature
“But if humans were all depressive realists, then we’d still be living in caves.” –David Pearce, philosopher
“…It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere…” – Voltaire
“In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, and cruelty.” – Leo Tolstoy
Money
“The power to tax is the power to destroy.” — Daniel Webster
“Indeed, in a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.” — John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul.” – George Bernard Shaw
“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 only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” – Mark Twain
“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” – Thomas Jefferson
Tactics
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice….and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” – Barry Goldwater (1964)
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” –Samuel Adams
The Media
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson
“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” –Thomas Jefferson
“The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.” — Thomas Jefferson
Freedom
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Goethe
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” — Rudy Giuliani
“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
“Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. – Thomas Paine
War
“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
“…of all the enemies of liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded….No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” —James Madison
“[The present war] may never end….It’s a new normalcy.”
—Dick CheneyEmpathy
“First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I’m not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I’m not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I’m not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.” – Pastor Father Niemoller (1946)
America
“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”– Thomas Jefferson
“It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.” – Charles A. Beard
“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
Guns
“No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” —Thomas Jefferson
“Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense.”—John Adams
“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” — George Mason, at Virginia’s convention for ratification of the Constitution in 1788
“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but in the exertion of the original right of self-defense which is paramount to all forms of positive government.” —Alexander Hamilton
Inspiration
“Let it not be said that we did nothing.” — Ron Paul